Dear Readers,

This past week, the staff of offoffonline.com was treated to a presentation by playwright, William M. Hoffman, best known for his 1985 Broadway show, As Is, which received the 1985 Drama Desk Award for outstanding new play, an Obie Award for distinguished writing, and three Tony nominations, including best play. Mr. Hoffman spoke about and fielded questions about his career and his viewpoints on the role of the playwright and the theater critic in modern theater. Overall, the gathering was both enlightening and entertaining and provided us with an interesting perspective from an individual who has been in the industry since the dawn of off-off Broadway theater.

In this week's reviews, we find radical re-workings of such classics as Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Twelfth Night and Euripides' The Phoenician Women. Also be sure to check out our pick of the week, a highly praised new comedy from Brian Parks who won the Best Writing Award at the 1997 New York International Fringe Festival and a Fringe First Award at the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe Festival for his sprawling satire Americana Absurdum, the work for which he is best known.

Other new reviews include:

A Taste of Honey, Shelagh Delaney's 1958 play set in the slums of Manchester, England that tells the story of a teenage girl, her irresponsible mother, her drunk stepfather, a black sailor who gets her pregnant, and a gay art student who helps her with the baby.

House/Boy, Nicky Paraiso's third autobiographical evening-length solo performance with music and multi-media, dealing with identity, sexuality, and the enduring theme of what "home" means to Filipino Americans.

Post-Oedipus, an of Euripides' classic The Phoenician Women, chronicles the events of Oedipus’ family after the fall of Oedipus. The play uses the structure of a photo album to shed light on the mental state of the family after the disaster.

The Fall of Eve and Adam, a new dark comedy written and directed by Judith Roberts Seto that offers a feminist and humorous slant on how attitudes toward women have changed changed over the years as told through writings that deal with the story of Adam and Eve.

Twelfth Night or What You Will, ShakespeareNYC’s new production of the classic romantic comedy of mistaken identity, gender-crossing disguise, and a plot that revolves around overcoming obstacles to "true" love.

Un-lonely Planet, a darkly comic story about two American couples on the fringes of society that travel to a country on the fringes of the world.

This is the last weekend to catch the following theater festivals happening in the city:

Performing Ethnicity, Chekhov Now Festival, The Fall Collection, and EATFest. Please visit our website for links to the individual festival websites for more information.


Happy Theatergoing,
Joyce Wan
Editor

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