Eric Engel

Latest Articles

Living Together is no Table Manners

Less funny
Alan Ayckbourn's merry bunch of British squabblers have reunited for another pre-summer vacation at that North Shore theatrical haven, the Gloucester Stage Company.
By ED SIEGEL | June 24, 2011

Gloucester Stage's 'Tender' is more mean than funny

Where turgid self-pity meets spiteful witlessness
"When am I going to stop feeling like such an asshole," asks Amanda, one of the three characters in Tender , which is getting its world premiere from Gloucester Stage (through July 25).
By ED SIEGEL | July 13, 2010

Cool drink on a hot day

With Table Manners, Gloucester Stage gives Ayckbourn his due
Alan Ayckbourn has been often dismissed as the British Neil Simon. He's also been hailed as a playwright of such acute insight that, if you look beyond the laughs, he deserves to be mentioned in the same critical breath as Harold Pinter.
By ED SIEGEL | July 05, 2010

Play by play: April 2, 2010

Theater listings, week of April 2, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | April 01, 2010

Play by play: March 26, 2010

Theater listings, March 26, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 25, 2010

Play by Play: March 19, 2010

Boston's weekly theater schedule.
Boston's weekly theater schedule.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 17, 2010

Moral surgery

Becky Shaw at the Huntington; Entertaining Mr. Sloane at the Publick; Othello at Actors' Shakespeare Project
You know upon meeting Becky Shaw that you're in the presence of a smart, snappy writer. But you picture playwright Gina Gionfriddo as someone more akin to Theresa Rebeck than William Makepeace Thackeray.
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 24, 2010

Play by play: March 12, 2010

Theater listings, week of March 12, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 10, 2010

Play by play: August 21, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | August 18, 2009

Play by play: August 14, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | August 11, 2009

Play by Play: August 7, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | August 05, 2009

Play by play: July 31, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | July 29, 2009

Hare belles

Divas Plum and Carroll exude The Breath of Life
With apologies to Winston Churchill, The Breath of Life is a cliché wrapped in an enigma — or two. On the face of it, award-winning British writer David Hare's ruthless yet sentimental two-hander (at Gloucester Stage through August 2) is a standard confrontation between a betrayed wife and her husband's long-time mistress.
By CAROLYN CLAY | July 28, 2009

Play by play: July 24, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | July 22, 2009

Play by play: July 17, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston's theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | July 15, 2009

Play by play: July 10, 2009

Plays from A to Z
This week in Boston theater
By JEFFREY GANTZ | July 08, 2009

Play by Play: July 3, 2009

Plays from A to Z
This week in Boston theater
By JEFFREY GANTZ | July 06, 2009

Joan Didion on stage, Spalding Gray on the page

Grief watch
The 90-minute theater piece differs from the memoir in ways other than its relative slimness. It's more of a linear journey.
By CAROLYN CLAY | January 07, 2009

Winter's tales

The cold season heats up on Boston boards
The cold season heats up on Boston boards
By LIZA WEISSTUCH | December 29, 2008

Suspicion

Othello at Shakespeare + Company, Doubt at Gloucester Stage
With John Douglas Thompson’s Moor, more is evidently more.
By CAROLYN CLAY | August 12, 2008

Smart women, tough choices

All’s Well in Lenox, Going to St. Ives via Gloucester
Welcome back to the director’s chair, Tina Packer.
By CAROLYN CLAY | July 22, 2008

Couples

Kiki & Herb; Lucia’s Chapters; Our Son’s Wedding
The Eternal Feminine gets a workout this week.
By CAROLYN CLAY | June 19, 2007

Heidi and seek

Gloucester Stage honors Wendy Wasserstein
The Heidi Chronicles is very much reflective of a first feminist generation of women caught between what their mothers had taught them to desire and what they thought they wanted.
By CAROLYN CLAY | June 20, 2006