With a title like The Unbelievers and a stage half filled with church pews, one might expect some discourse on religion from Nick Payne’s latest drama. Instead, the Manhattan Theatre Club production offers nearly two intermissionless hours of tedious conversation and few significant insights on any topic. A stellar performance by Lauren Ambrose is the U.K.-set play’s saving grace.
Tristan & Yseult, Emma Rice’s exuberant reimagining of the legendary medieval romance, transforms a tragic tale of forbidden love into a theatrically inventive blend of music, irreverent humor, and physical comedy. With a live band, imaginative staging, and a playful sensibility, Rice, who directs, creates a production that moves effortlessly between laughter and heartbreak, breathing fresh life into this timeless love story.
Since 2010’s That Hopey Changey Thing, Off-Broadway theatergoers have fretted over American politics alongside the Apple family, denizens of the Hudson Valley village of Rhinebeck. With We’ll See now at the Public Theater, playwright and director Richard Nelson presents the 13th installment of his “Rhinebeck Panorama” and his eighth Apple play (counting three COVID live streams). Thanks to a familiar and remarkable ensemble, and Nelson’s signature fly-on-the-wall naturalism, We’ll See achieves its quiet, bittersweet power by placing larger political concerns alongside the hyper-specific and finely drawn relationships of its characters.
Welcome to a 21st-century American Jewish home, where whatever comes along is embraced with love—with some exceptions. Debbie Goodstein’s The Blue Violinist Over West End Avenue introduces a prototypically eclectic family, who bear little resemblance to the Jews of their great-grandparents’ era.
In Dan Giles’s play The Charioteer, two siblings attempt to forge a relationship despite their reluctance to share their true feelings, wanting to connect but unsure of themselves. High school senior Charly (Mia Wurgaft) visits her brother Owen (Jake Horowitz) at college and has her first drink—and her first experience of getting blackout drunk. Owen, who went away to college a few years earlier, has essentially abandoned his family. Owen takes Charly along to an anarchist house party, where he essentially abandons her in favor of spending the night trying to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend Ellen.
With a title like The Unbelievers and a stage half filled with church pews, one might expect some discourse on religion from Nick Payne’s latest drama. Instead, the Manhattan Theatre Club production offers nearly two intermissionless hours of tedious conversation and few significant insights on any topic. A stellar performance by Lauren Ambrose is the U.K.-set play’s saving grace.
