Clocking in at 70 minutes, Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones, directed by Ciaran O'Reilly at Irish Rep (through Dec. 6), is tragedy in fast-motion. The first half of the play is an exposition as to the ruler's rise to power—he was a slave in America, who, through trickery and intimidation, came to be the ruler of a native land—and the second half is his torture by ghosts in the jungle, as he escapes his voodoo-practicing subjects' sudden uprising. In this case, consisting of lots of neat-o puppets.

This post has additional content, click on the permalink to read more.

Read more

If you attend Ghost Light, currently onstage through Oct. 31 at 59E59, you should be looking for “a little bit of strange,” like the play's two main characters who go to a seedy motel room—complete with flickering light and ceiling mirror. In their case, it's an unlikely affair in which they dip outside their usual social circles in order to get something they want. But in your case, it being so close to Halloween, you probably want the kind of strange that just comes out and says Boo! already. Luckily, neither you nor they get the expected, making way for a tantalizing, utterly absorbing hour. But the allure of the crowd-pleasing, cheap scare is a strong one, my friends, and it’s no surprise that it even seduces José Zayas, this show's otherwise-precise director, in the end.

This post has additional content, click on the permalink to read more.

Read more