The Huntington’s ‘The Art of Burning’ Smolders and Sparks

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Adrianne Krstansky, Michael Kaye and Rom Barkhordar in The Huntington’s ‘Art of Burning’
Photo Credit: T Charles Erickson

“The Art of Burning” by Kate Snodgrass. Directed by Melia Bensussen. Scenic Design: Luciana Stecconi; Lighting Design: Aja M. Jackson; Sound Design: Jane Shaw; Costume Design: Kate Harmon. Presented by The Huntington, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston through February 12.

by Shelley A. Sackett

Patricia (Adrianne Krstansky), a frumpy middle-aged painter, opens Kate Snodgrass’ ‘The Art of Burning’ mid-conversation with her friend Charlene (Laura Latreille). “Sometimes we have to kill the things we love to save them,” she announces seemingly out of the blue. Charlene adds critical context. The two have just seen a production of “Medea” and are debriefing outside the theater.

In the ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides, Medea takes vengeance on her unfaithful husband Jason by murdering his new younger wife as well as her own two sons, after which she escapes to Athens to start a new life. To Charlene’s discomfort, Patricia not only sympathizes with Medea, she praises her.

“She saves her children,” Patricia explains. “She doesn’t want to but she has to. The world will make their lives miserable and she doesn’t want that. She loves them.” Patricia may look mousey, but she is a mouse that roars.

Hell Hath No Fury in “The Art of Burning”

January 31, 2023February 1, 2023 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Adrianne Krstansky, Michael Kaye, and Rom Barkhordar in “The Art of Burning” at The Huntington Photos by T Charles Erickson

“The Art of Burning” by Kate Snodgrass. Directed by Melia Bensussen. Costume Design: Kate Harmon Lighting Design: Aja M. Jackson Scenic Design: Luciana Stecconi Sound Design: Jane Shaw. Presented by The Huntington, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston through February 12.

by Michele Markarian

Patricia (Adrianne Krstansky) is a scary, angry, off-kilter painter. Her husband, Jason (Rom Barkhordar) has left her for his younger colleague, Katya (Vivia Font), and the two of them are duking it out for custody of their fifteen year old daughter, Beth (Clio Contogenis). Their family friend Mark (Michael Kaye) is acting as their mediator at Jason’s insistence, a fact that Patricia doesn’t appreciate. When Mark’s wife, Charlene (Laura Latreille) relays the story of a “friend” who’s having an affair, Patricia’s self-righteous and judgmental attitude about people who have affairs is alienating. Patricia is on a collision course, unhinged by the infidelity of Jason.

A Magnificent ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ Heralds the Huntington’s Jubilant Homecoming

October 25, 2022October 26, 2022 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Patrese D. McClain and James Ricardo Milord (foreground) and cast in ‘Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ at The Huntington.

‘August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone’ by August Wilson. Directed by Lili-Anne Brown; Arnel Sancianco, Scenic Design; Samantha C. Jones, Costume Design; Jason Lynch, Lighting Design; Aubrey Dube, Sound Design. Presented by The Huntington Theatre through November 13.

by Shelley A. Sackett

What a pleasure it is to have the Huntington Theatre Company back. With its sleek Narragansett Green walls, gold domed ceiling and cherry red extra legroom seats, an always pleasurable theatrical experience is now also one full of creature comforts. Even more stunning, however, is the magnificent production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, with which the Huntington christened its reopening. If Joe Turner’s footprints lingered long after he had gone, it’s because Wilson’s unforgettable presence (and titular title as the Huntington’s creative patron saint) enveloped the stage.

The Huntington’s ‘Common Ground Revisited’ Asks Bostonians to Stop Blaming Racism on the Rest of the Country and To Look Within Their Own House

June 20, 2022 michaelhobanLeave a comment

The cast of *Common Ground Revisited* at The Huntington. Maurice Emmanuel Parent in foreground Photos: T Charles Erickson

by Michael Cox

Common Ground, Revisited – Co-conceived and adapted by Kirsten Greenidge; co-conceived and directed by Melia Bensussen; set design by Sara Brown; costume design by An-lin Dauber; lighting design by Brian J. Lilienthal; sound design by Pornchanok Kanchanabanca; projection design by Rasean Davonté Johnson; wig/hair and makeup design by J. Jared Janas; dramaturgy by Neema Avashia; stage-managed by Emily F. McMullen. Co-produced by The Huntington Theatre and ArtsEmerson at the Calderwood Pavilion/BCA through July 3, 2022.

When a group of people have no voice in the conversation, they interrupt. They make their voices heard through disruption. Colonial Boston did this back in 1765 when we enacted the first public act of defiance against the King of England and rioted in the streets, and we continued the tradition in the 1970s when U.S. District Judge Arthur Garrity Jr. ordered Boston to implement race-integrated busing.

In Common Ground, Revisited, The Huntington Theatre Company looks at the non-fiction book Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families, a Pulitzer Prize-winner which in many ways has come to define this city – because it disrupted us. It asked us to look in the mirror and examine – in microscopic detail – our racism.

Huntington’s ‘Common Ground, Revisited’ Asks Us to Look Back In Order to Move Forward

June 13, 2022 michaelhobanLeave a comment

The cast of *Common Ground Revisited* at The Huntington. Photos: T Charles Erickson

by Julie-Anne Whitney

Kirsten Greenidge’s new play, Common Ground, Revisited is inspired by and based in part on J. Anthony Lukas’1986 Pulitzer Prize-winning non-fiction book, Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families. The primary focus of both texts is on class and racial tensions in Boston during the 1974 busing crisis when U.S. District Judge Arthur Garrity Jr. ordered nearly 20,000 Black and white students to be bused to/from the city’s geographically segregated public schools. The mandate led to years of violent protesting, significant demographic changes in the city and surrounding suburbs, and a dramatic decrease in enrollment in area schools that continues to this day. Fifty years after the 1972 Morgan v Hennigan case that led to Garrity’s ruling, Boston’s public schools are even more divided than they were back then with “two-thirds of BPS students attend[ing] intensely segregated schools where students of color make up 90% or more of the total enrollment.”

In Huntington’s ‘Our Daughters, Like Pillars’, Family Comes First – at a Price

April 23, 2022April 23, 2022 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Lyndsay Allyn Cox, Arie Thompson and Nikkole Salter in “Our Daughters, Like Pillars” at the Huntington (Photos by T Charles Erickson)

‘Our Daughters, Like Pillars’ – Written by Kirsten Greenidge; directed by Kimberly Senior; set design by Marion Williams; costume design by Sarita Fellows; lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger; sound design and original music by Jane Shaw; wig/hair and makeup design by Tommy Kurzman; stage managed by Kevin Schlagle. Produced by The Huntington Theatre at the Calderwood Pavilion/BCA through May 8, 2022.

by Julieanne Whitney

Our Daughters, Like Pillars is a story about complex family dynamics and the struggle to break free from the roles we are forced into playing within the family unit. Kirsten Greenidge’s new play focuses on a Black family at the center of which are three sisters doing what they can (or must) to hold themselves and each other together.

Family Matters in Huntington’s “Our Daughters Like Pillars”

April 22, 2022April 22, 2022 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Michele Markarian

“Our Daughters Like Pillars” – Written by Kirsten Greenidge. Directed by Kimberly Senior. Presented by The Huntington, Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston through May 8.

Lavinia Shaw Williams (Nikkole Salter), the oldest sister of a Black family, has organized a week-long stay at an Airbnb in North Conway, New Hampshire, for siblings Octavia (Arie Thompson) and Zelda (Lyndsay Allyn Cox). Their mother, Yvonne (Lizan Mitchell) is there as well; she has been living with Lavinia and Lavinia’s husband, Morris (Postell Pringle). What appears to be a mere vacation is actually part of a larger plan that Lavinia – or Vinny as she’s called – has for her family; to live together forever under one roof. What Vinny hasn’t counted on is Zelda’s arrival with her new self-sustaining tiny house and new boyfriend, Paul (Julian Parker), as well as the arrival of their negligent father’s second wife, Missy Shaw (Cheryl D. Singleton). Family, with all of its flaws, betrayals, loyalties and secrets, are at the heart of the play.

Huntington Theatre’s Ambitious ‘Teenage Dick’ Challenges Our Assumptions

December 10, 2021 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Louis Reyes McWilliams, Shannon DeVido, Emily Townley, Portland Thomas, Gregg Mozgala in ‘Teenage Dick’, at The Huntington Calderwood/BCA. Photos: Teresa Castracane

‘Teenage Dick’ – Written by Mike Lew; Directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel; Scenic Design by Wilson Chin; Sound Design by Palmer Hefferan; Lighting Design by Amith Chandrashaker; Choreography by Jennifer Weber; Fight Choreography by Robb Hunter. Presented by The Huntington Theatre Company at The Calderwood Pavillion, 527 Tremont St., Boston through January 2, 2022.

by Shelley A. Sackett

From the moment he walks onto the bare stage and addresses the audience in the first of many private monologues, it’s clear 17-year-old Roseland High School junior Richard Gloucester (Gregg Mozgala) has an angle beyond just establishing a connection with the audience. What that angle is is less clear, and will shape-shift with dizzying speed during the next 70 minutes until the audience is left in a delicious murky space of questioning almost everything they thought they knew about both Richard and themselves.

The Hope and Despair of ‘Witch’

October 23, 2021October 26, 2021 michaelhobanLeave a comment

*Javier David Padi*lla, *Nick Sulfaro, Barzin Akhavan, and Gina Fonseca in Huntington Theatre’s ‘Witch’*

by Michele Markarian

“Witch” – Written by Jen Silverman. Directed by Rebecca Bradshaw. Presented by the Huntington Theatre Company, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through November 14^h.

Jen Silverman is my new favorite playwright. Their voice is unique, yet the way their plays are layered with deeper meaning and intent underneath some very smart, very funny dialogue is reminiscent of Edward Albee. Witch, aided by a strong cast, lively direction and excellent production values is no exception.

“I’m not arguing for the end of the world – but then again, maybe I am”, Elizabeth Sawyer (Lyndsay Allyn Cox) tells us in her opening monologue. Elizabeth is a lonely, friendless woman, who has, for reasons unbeknownst to her, been labeled a “witch” by the local villagers. In the same village, a devil named Scratch (Michael Underhill) is granting townspeople wishes in exchange for their souls. Two surrender easily – Cuddy (Nick Sulfaro), the effeminate son of local bigwig Sir Arthur Banks (Barzin Akhavan) and Frank Thorney (Javier David Padilla), an ambitious farmer’s son whose easy masculinity has compelled Sir Arthur to take him under his wing. Frank Thorney possesses a secret childhood girlfriend, Winifred (Gina Fonseca), who has sacrificed her dignity to work as a maid in Sir Arthur’s home to be near her beloved. She is in love with Frank, Cuddy is in love with Frank, and Frank is in love with himself.

“Hurricane Diane” Blows Into Boston

September 3, 2021September 3, 2021 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Kris Sidberry, Jennifer Bubriski, Esme Allen, and Marianna Bassham in Huntington’s “Hurricane Diane”

“Hurricane Diane” – Written by Madeleine George. Directed by Jenny Koons. Presented by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through September 26^th.

by Michele Markarian

“I have returned and it begins”, is the first line uttered in Madeleine George’s play “Hurricane Diane” by the character of Dionysius (Rami Margron). A cheer erupted from the masked, packed house at the Calderwood, where live theater has returned after a nearly 550 day absence. Dionysius has been hiding out as Diane, and living on a lesbian separatist community of sustainability outside of Burlington, Vermont. Dionysius has returned because he knows we’ve been doing bad things to the environment. Seeking a quorum of four women, he disguises himself as Diane, a landscaper, to seduce housewives from a suburban cul-de-sac of New Jersey in the hopes that they’ll embrace permaculture and restore the earth to its former wilderness.