Lynne Weiss

ADRIFT, AND MORALLY AT SEA A haunting, musically rich survival tale that probes faith, labor, and the cost of living on Directed by Jeremy Johnson and driven by the highly listenable roots-inflected songs from The Avett Brothers (music director Paul S. Katz), this engrossing SpeakEasy Stage production of Swept Away, a New England premiere, tells a…

TOO MANY HANDS ON DECK An inventive but overstuffed adaptation floods the narrative The world premiere of DNAWorks‘ adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s “The Secret Sharer,” directed by Daniel Banks at Emerson Paramount Center offers a lot of intriguing approaches to this classic tale of two men who strongly resemble one another.  Regarded as a novella…

A GREAT DEBATE A play that asks the audience to think about what the Constitution means to them When she was 15, Heidi Schreck went on tour to compete for college scholarships by delivering a talk called What the Constitution Means to Me to American Legion posts. Her talk was successful enough to pay her…

TURNING A THEATRICAL LEMON INTO FIZZY LEMONADE Matthew Lombardo spins a true-life theatrical disaster into a relentlessly funny backstage comedy According to Nora Ephron, who turned her husband’s infidelity into a best-seller and screenplay for the novel and the movie Heartburn, “Everything is material.” But she didn’t say it should be hilarious material. If she…

TERRIFIC, RADIANT, AND HUMBLE An age-appropriate exploration of death and the life-saving power of words Based on E. B. White’s beloved children’s book of the same title and adapted by Joseph Robinette, the staged version of Charlotte’s Web offers many points of entry for children. Themes of friendship, death, persistence, problem-solving, and diversity all play…

NO ECSTASY TO BE FOUND An effort to portray religious transcendence lacks focus and context Treehouse Collective describes itself as an ensemble-based theater company “dedicated to producing rarely performed works.” In the case of Mariette in Ecstasy, I suspect there is a reason the work is rarely performed. The play takes place in a convent,…

DARK VICTORY  Disability transformed in a gripping and tension-filled noir Director Weylin Symes provides unerring direction of the classic thriller Wait Until Dark at the Greater Boston Stage Company in Stoneham, Massachusetts. This modern adaptation of the 1966 Broadway play by Frederick Knott enjoys superb sound (Caroline Eng) and lighting design (Jeff Adelberg) to transform…

WE WON’T KNOW WHAT WE’VE GOT ‘TIL IT’S GONE An exploration of what it means to be human through the consciousness of the machines we created SpeakEasy Stage presents the New England premier of Jordan Harrison’s The Antiquities in a groundbreaking, thought-provoking, and poignant production directed by Alex Lonati. Nine actors take on more than…

LITTLE PATIENCE FOR LITTLE WOMEN Girls interrupted, potential unrealized Actors’ Shakespeare Project is an esteemed local theater company here in Greater Boston and frankly one of my favorites. Kate Hamill, one of the most produced living playwrights in the United States, is also one of my favorite playwrights. Not everyone loves the way she applies…

A PRESSURE COOKER OF A PRODUCTION A thriller that examines the effects of social media Josephine Moshiri Elwood (Jane) and Dennis Trainor Jr. (Loyd) pull out all the stops in Job, an 80-minute intermission-free exploration of the effects of social media on those who produce it and those who consume it. Jane has been sent…

NO LYIN’ ABOUT THIS ADORABLE LION A story about rules and when it is right to break them The four-year-old I took to the Adam Theater production of Library Lion at the Calderwood Pavilion in the Boston Center for the Arts was terrified when he saw the picture of the lion’s large and expressive face…

WONDER OF WONDERS! A musical that refuses pity and earns its hope American Repertory Theater’s world premiere of the musical adaptation of R. J. Palacio’s best-selling Wonder and the eponymous 2017 film, is, indeed, filled with wonders. The children’s novel is not only the story of a boy with a facial difference, though that is…

GO TELL IT! There are many ways to celebrate the holiday season on Boston-area stages, ranging from dance interpretations of The Nutcracker to performances and revisions of Dickens, to the ever-new traditional Revels and shows that use the Christmas season as a backdrop for stories of joy and even hilarity. None get so deeply to…