New York Review: Irish Rep Explores Ireland in Civil War With The Shadow of a Gunman
Third Coast Review’s chief theater critic is spending the month of March in New York. This is is the first of her dispatches on New York theater and other […]
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 Bluesky at @nancyb.bsky.social. She also writes about film, books, art, architecture and design.
The Whole World a Bauhaus Celebrates 100th Anniversary of Iconic German and Chicago Design School
Furniture. Textiles. Toys. Home goods. Buildings. Photography. Theater design. Typography and graphic design. It’s hard to exaggerate how much the visual design that surrounds us is influenced by the work of […]
Review: Rebecca Gilman’s Twilight Bowl: Small Town Life With No Escape Route?
Four young women in a small-town Wisconsin bar, with a bowling alley beyond. It’s a story of their lives, their sorrows, their limited futures. Bowling is a side activity for […]
Review: Four Troubled Souls Try for Connection in Red Orchid’s Fulfillment Center
What does fulfillment mean? The playbill for A Red Orchid Theatre’s Fulfillment Center gives us more than a clue. Artistic director Kirsten Fitzgerald’s note lists definitions and describes what fulfillment means […]
Review: Phone Technology is Only Part of the Surreal Story in Dead Man’s Cell Phone by the Comrades
It’s just a plain old flip phone. Not one of those computer-in-your-pocket devices that runs your life today. But when Jean takes possession of the phone, it enables her to […]
Review: Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline Explores the Troubled School to Prison Route at Victory Gardens
The pipeline in Dominique Morisseau’s play is the school-to-prison path followed too often by young people from disadvantaged backgrounds because of harsh school and police policies. The route is explored […]
Review: Remy Bumppo’s The Father Tricks With Our Minds in Story of Aging, Memory and Perception
The Father by French playwright Florian Zeller is a play about aging and dementia. But it’s not your typical touching human story designed to gain your sympathy for a troubled […]
Review: At Steep Theatre, Red Rex Wrestles With Who Gets to Tell the Story
The Red Rex Theatre Co. rehearses a play about characters drawn from their own Rightlynd neighborhood in Ike Holter’s play at Steep Theatre. They hope this will be the play […]
30th Annual RhinoFest Brings 41 Fringe Productions: Our Capsule Reviews
The Rhinoceros Theatre Festival, created for the 30th year by Curious Theatre Branch and Prop Thtr, is presenting a full schedule of 41 plays in a six-week performance marathon in […]
Review: The Realistic Joneses, A Play About Nothing, Laced With Existential Dread
Awkward dialogue. Misunderstood references. Two people with obscure diseases. Two couples named Jones. Two marriages in flux. The Realistic Joneses is about life and the fear of death—and about the […]
Review: City Lit Stages Fuente Ovejuna, a Thoroughly Modern Tale 400 Years Old
Spanish playwright Lope de Vega wrote a compelling drama about a village that rebelled against its lecherous overlord to protect its women—a very 21st century story. De Vega wrote it […]
Review: Compass Theatre’s What We’re Up Against Shows 1992 Workplace Sexism Is Still Alive and Well
Playwright Theresa Rebeck is a master of dialogue and never hesitates to portray the bad manners of her contemporaries. Her 2011 play, What We’re Up Against, just opened as the […]