Essay: Why We Celebrate World Press Freedom Day on May 3
Saturday, May 3, is World Press Freedom Day. We celebrate that because in the US we are fortunate to have a strong Constitution that protects press freedom and other forms […]
Nancy S. Bishop is publisher and Stages editor of Third Coast Review. She’s a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a 2014 Fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. You can read her personal writing on pop culture at nancybishopsjournal.com, and follow her on Twitter @nsbishop. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.
Review: Victory Gardens Stages Henry Johnson, a New David Mamet Drama About a Simple Man Who Fails…at Everything
This is a review of a new play by David Mamet…. Although any mention of David Mamet today can turn into something else entirely. For instance, how many playwrights attract […]
Feature: The National Hellenic Museum Treats Us to Their Annual Lesson in Legal History and Personal Drama with The Trial of Themistocles
Themistocles was a military hero and a political leader, born to a working-class family just outside Athens around 524 BCE. He rose to lead Athens in war and peace but […]
Review: Stage Left Theatre’s The Distrikt of Lake Michigun Plays With the History of Streeterville and Its Rogue Namesake at Water Tower Place
Stage Left Theatre, a Chicago company with 40 years of history, is redefining storefront theater with its new production, The Distrikt of Lake Michigun, in an empty retail space on the […]
Review: Eephus Is a Baseball Film About a Pitch, a Game and Much More
Eephus is a film about an amateur baseball game played languidly over several hours at Soldiers Field, a treasured old baseball field in small town Massachusetts. The film is named for […]
Review: The Drowning Girls by Three Crows Theatre Tells a True Crime Story With Dramatic Style
The three drowning girls are young women in their 20s and 30s, desperate to marry and avoid spinsterhood. The time is the early 20th century, and Bessie Mundy, Alice Burnham […]
Review: Raven Theatre Creates a Sizzling Production of the Sam Shepard Masterwork, A Lie of the Mind
A Lie of the Mind, Sam Shepard’s 1983 play about two families and the tragedy that binds them, is a sizzling 2.5 hours of solid acting, direction and pacing. At […]
Review: At the Artistic Home, Hedda Gabler Tells the Story of a Flamboyant 19th Century Proto-Feminist
Was the heroine of Hedda Gabler an early feminist or just a spoiled brat? In the new production of Henrik Ibsen’s 1890 play, Brookelyn Hebert plays her as a bit of both. […]
Review: Pinter’s Triangle Gets a Brisk Portrayal in Betrayal at Goodman Theatre
A triangle has three sides. But the three sides are not always equal, as we learn in maths. Or geometry, if you’re an American. And so it is in Betrayal, the […]
Review: In Trap Door’s The Mannequins’ Ball, Mannequins Are the Movers in a Story That Combines Politics and Partying
The new production of The Mannequins’ Ball at Trap Door Theatre is a whole lot of 1930s agitprop choreographed with music, singing and dancing. Nicole Weisner and Miguel Long direct 90 minutes […]
Review: Who’s the Hero in Shattered Globe’s Lobby Hero? All Four Characters Face Ethical Choices
Kenneth Lonergan’s Lobby Hero blends working relationships tested by an ethical dilemma in this comedic drama that gets a timely staging by Shattered Globe Theatre. Is the titular Lobby Hero the loopy […]
Review: Fat Ham at Goodman Theatre Transports the Gloomy Dane to a Lively Southern Backyard Barbecue
Fat Ham, the prize-winning play by James Ijames, is now on stage at Goodman Theatre in a co-production with Definition Theatre. Ijames’ script was inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet and incorporates some of the original’s […]