A New Haven Literary Journal
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Review of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd , Westport Country Playhouse The Murder of Roger Ackroyd , Agatha Christie's much respected murder mystery, has been adapted for the stage by Mark Shanahan and, lovingly directed by him, is playing at Westport Country Playhouse through August 1st. It's an entertaining and involving drama about concealment and revealing. The Company of Agatha Christie’s The…
Review of The Weir , New Haven Theater Company George Kulp, a founding member of the New Haven Theater Company, has a way with sets. Together with Rich Burkham, Kulp has devised a cozy pub that looks lived-in and worn, with a stone fireplace, a wood-burning stove, an ancient cash register, and photos on the wall that ostensibly capture the local history of the setting of NHTC's latest offering,…
Review of Furlough's Paradise , Yale Repertory Theatre A dramatic consideration of the fraught relations between two cousins, a. k. payne's Furlough's Paradise gives us access to the conversations between Mina and Sade (or De) as well as to the deeper, wordless fears and anxieties that prey on them. As directed by abigail jean-baptiste, at Yale Repertory Theatre through May 16, much of the show's…
Review of Native Gardens , Hartford Stage "Good fences make good neighbors," the old saying goes, indicating that a clear demarcation between properties keeps things pleasant. In Karen Zacarías' Native Gardens , now playing at Hartford Stage through May 10, directed by Nicole A. Watson, a bad fence, wrongly placed, nearly brings good neighbors to all out warfare in an upscale community in…
Review of Primary Trust , Westport Country Playhouse Playing through May 2 at Westport Country Playhouse, Eboni Booth's Pulitzer-winning play Primary Trust skillfully blends humor and heartbreak, hope and trauma to tell the story of a young Black man in a town near Rochester, NY, in the early 2000s. It's a touching story that stresses the importance of humane interaction, highlighting the value of…
Review of Rhinoceros , Yale Repertory Theatre What do you do when everyone in your immediate vicinity (which, in the age of the internet is extensive) jumps on a bandwagon? Do you gleefully jump on too? Or do you respond skeptically, keeping the new idea, implement, technique, leader, faith at arm's length? Or do you turn vehemently against what "everyone else" has accepted? No matter how you…
Review of Little Wars , New Haven Theater Company Steven Carl McCasland's Little Wars , New Haven Theater Company's latest offering, the first of their 2026 season, brings together seven women in a drawing room in the French Alps in 1940. Four of them are famous writers—Gertrude Stein (Deena Nicol-Blifford), Lillian Hellman (Sandra Rodriguez), Dorothy Parker (Jodi Williams), Agatha Christie…
Review of Gem of the Ocean , Long Wharf Theatre In order of creation, Gem of the Ocean is the penultimate play in August Wilson's American Century Cycle, which sets a play in each decade of the twentieth century, but it's the first in chronological sequence. As such it's the first and almost the last, and much of what Wilson concerned himself with in the twenty-plus years he wrote the ten plays is…
Review of Death of a Salesman , Hartford Stage Hartford Stage has outdone itself this time! While the 60+ year-old playhouse is well known for reviving classic American plays, there are classics and then there are classics. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman , which dates from 1949, has the kind of cred and rep that are pretty much unshakeable. While certain elements to any play that old may seem…
Preview of Little Wars , New Haven Theater Company Next week, Thursday, March 5th, New Haven Theater Company opens its three weekend run (Thursdays through Saturdays) of Steven Carl McCasland's Little Wars , directed by company member John Strano, an ensemble piece about seven women, mostly writers, who have come together for a social evening on June 22, 1940. "It's a work of speculative fiction,"…
