items tagged with Liz Blackwell

While the story would benefit from more attention to how and when plot points should unfold, and some of the dialogue would benefit from a greater awareness of how people actually speak, I quite liked the themes that author Melissa McBain explores in Altar Call.

Three days after seeing A Nice Family Gathering at the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre, I was still trying to understand the inclusion of the word “nice” in playwright Phil Olson’s title. This isn’t a feel-good, fuzzy-holiday-feelings sort of Thanksgiving play that would render the title appropriate, if clichéd. Nor is it an over-the-top, crass, outrageous comedy that makes the use of the word ironic. (Nor, for the record, is it a play about a family with the last name Nice.) I’m guessing, however, that an over-the-top, crass, outrageous comedy was Olson’s intent, given that the content of his play kind of approaches shocking, though barely.

As suggested by the title, the Richmond Hill Barn Theatre’s current offering, Sex Please, We’re 60, involves men and women of a certain age and their libidos, but thankfully it maintains a modicum of decency by placing the “action” off stage. The piece also features many clichéd jokes and absurd situations, but while I cringed at the images conjured by the title, it’s when the work is at its (relatively) raunchiest that the play and the cast work best.

The Playcrafters Barn Theatre’s production of Rehearsal for Murder suffers from poor pacing, but excels in its sincere sentiment and charm. The actors, for the most part, tend to take too many beats between lines, which leads to sometimes-clunky dialogue progression. Still, Friday night’s performance was appealing for its overall emotional effect, and likable for the cast’s ability to move the audience to sympathetic sorrow for the main character’s heartache.

I love making lists. Love it. And I get an annual charge out of composing "10 best"s for the Reader based on my movie-going experiences: 10 Best Films, 10 Best Guilty Pleasures, 10 Best Action Blockbusters Based on a Pre-Existing
Toy ... .

So when I started thinking about my forthcoming Year in Theatre recap a few weeks ago, I thought it might make for a fun change of pace to compose "best" lists for area stage productions.