Ten years ago, Elaine Jarvik’s science fiction play Based on a True Story (in a Plan-B Theatre world premiere production) took its audiences to 2046, where commercial time travel is an option on the P-F highway (past-future) which stretches 15 billion years in either direction. There are time refugee centers for persons whose trips trap … Read more
At a time when many are trying furiously to erase the past rather than expose it, a play like Sarah Ruhl’s Becky Nurse of Salem: A Contemporary Comedy about a Historical Tragedy, hits the zeitgeist punch with illuminating humor and intelligent drama which telegraph the real meaning of witch hunts. With Morag Shepherd’s sharp-witted direction, … Read more
Ahead of Plan-B Theatre’s world premiere of Darryl Stamp’s Dumbed Down, which will open this week, audiences should be mindful to see the story not arising primarily from the familiar (and lazy) trope of the school-to-prison pipeline, but to see it on a broader sobering scale of a messy education system with impacts that are … Read more
Focusing on the experiences of some of the greatest figures in English literature, Kristina Leach’s Grasmere, a theatrical docudrama that weaves historical facts with speculative fiction, can only work if the chamber ensemble of four actors truly comprehends the actual legacy to which they have been tasked to interpret on stage. In the case of … Read more
In the new musical Ten Brave Seconds, by the time Wooster High School student Mike is looking for a refuge and reset in Mr. G’s classroom, it has been a hellish day of spiraling emotions for the boy. From the time when he woke up that morning, one blunt confrontation after another has repeatedly exploded … Read more
Every family has rules that deal with how emotions are expressed, which may or may not be helpful especially when something radically changes the status quo or when grief enters the picture. If the family member who has died was cherished for how they communicated to another family member, the loss likely makes it more … Read more
Editor’s Note: In extending its tradition, The Utah Review, with the assistance of Christal Jackson, an English teacher and ELL coordinator at City Academy, asked two students to review Salt Lake Acting Company’s production of Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed: The Rock Experience, with script and lyrics by Mo Willems and music by Deborah Wicks … Read more
Let’s be honest. There is no better season for farce than the holidays at the end of the year. Ask any host who envisions the perfect holiday gathering only to see it unravel, thanks to clashing egos or the chaos of personal drama and fragile relationships. Pioneer Theatre Company (PTC) has wisely chosen farce as … Read more
In fashioning complicated characters that encourage audiences to handle more than one thought about a person in their minds, playwright Jen Silverman has always deftly handled themes of isolation, paranoia and loneliness well while suggesting larger social epiphanies in her stories. That certainly is the case in The Moors (2017) and the latest Voodoo Theatre … Read more
PYGmalion Productions Theatre Company’s Utah premiere production of Tiny Beautiful Things, which is based on the bestselling book by Cheryl Strayed that was adapted for the stage by Academy-Award nominated screenwriter and award-winning actor Nia Vardalos, is a charming delight of chamber theater, with a quartet of actors who give the audience a soothing respite … Read more