Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, November 2003 I wanted to like this production. I really did. I want to see Main Street Stage succeed and Tom Stoppard is one of my favorite playwrights and what’s not to like about a show that ends with three (count ‘em, three!) theatre critics…

Previewed by Gail M. Burns, October 2003 The days are growing shorter and the frost is on the pumpkin. Are you ready for a rattling good evening of murder and mystery? Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from October 23 through November 15, the Main Street Stage is presenting The Real Inspector Hound by…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2003 Main Street Stage has come up with another powerful show that neatly utilizes their narrow storefront playing area. The Beauty Queen of Leenane takes place in a claustrophobic run-of-the-mill Irish cottage in the small village of Leenane in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. The play centers…

by Gail M. Burns, August 2003 Phil Soltanoff has been coming to Williamstown every summer since 1993. Pursuing his interest in mixing and blending the arts in new and interesting ways to create new forms of theatre, in 1996 he created an ensemble performance entitled “To Whom It May Concern.”…

by Gail M. Burns, July 2003 After preview performances last week, Main Street Stage officially opens their production of Martin McDonagh’s prize-winning play The Beauty Queen of Leenane tomorrow night. Set in the present day in the mountains of Connemara, County Galway, Ireland, The Beauty Queen of Leenane tells the darkly comic tale of…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, November 2002 The Largest Elizabeth in the World is a one-act play by Stephen Gregg about a dysfunctional family whose younger daughter grows to be 50 feet tall, although she later settles for life at a mere 17 feet. While I understood at various points where…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, August 2002 Even though Black Sheep was an imperfect play, it was intriguing enough that I jumped at the chance to see a local production of another play by Lee Blessing, Eleemosynary. Since this one boasted an all-female cast I was assured that no wet, naked, dead men…

Reviewed by Gail M. Burns, December 2001 “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller (1880-1968) I do not know the context in which Helen Keller made this remark, nor the age at which she made it, but there is no doubt that…