Steven Barkhimer

Latest Articles

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: June 4, 2010

Theater listings, week of June 4, 2010
Theater listings, week of June 4, 2010
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 03, 2010

Reversal of fortunes

Timon of Athens from Actors’ Shakespeare Project, Prelude to a Kiss from the Huntington
Timon of Athens is Shakespeare’s least characteristic tragedy, and the toughest to pull off.
By STEVE VINEBERG | May 25, 2010

Play by play: May 28, 2010

Theater listings, May 28, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 27, 2010

Play by Play: May 21, 2010

Theater listings, May 21, 2010
Boston's weekly theater listings
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 19, 2010

Play by play: May 14, 2010

Theater listings, May 14, 2010
Boston's weekly theater listings
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 17, 2010

Play by Play: January 29, 2010

Theater listings, January 29, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 27, 2010

Play by play: January 22, 2010

Theater listings, January 22, 2010
Boston's weekly theatre schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 20, 2010

Play by play: January 15, 2010

Theater listings, January 15, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 13, 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

Quake and Shake

Company One meshes Murakami; Orfeo compacts the Bard
A tenderhearted yarn spinner tells an anxious little girl a story about a talking bear hawking honey. A nerdy young debt collector comes home to find a six-foot amphibian bent on recruiting him to save Tokyo from a natural disaster. Both scenarios emanate from the brain of award-winning Japanese writer Haruki Murakami.
By CAROLYN CLAY | July 22, 2009

Play by Play: March 13, 2009

Plays A to Z
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 10, 2009

Play by play: March 6, 2009

Plays from A to Z
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 03, 2009

Play by Play: February 27, 2009

Plays A to Z
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
By CAROLYN CLAY | February 24, 2009

Play by play: February 20, 2009

Plays A to Z
A compilation of theater productions in and around Boston
By CAROLYN CLAY | February 17, 2009

Threshold of revelation

Einstein dreams in Central Square; Skylight is illumined in Lowell
Einstein dreams in Central Square; Skylight is illumined in Lowell
By CAROLYN CLAY | November 26, 2008

Return of the screw

The Woman in Black haunts Gloucester Stage
Line up your goosebumps: Gloucester Stage is rushing Halloween with a bit of Victorian hokum entitled The Woman in Black.
By CAROLYN CLAY | September 02, 2008

Mad men

Orfeo’s Look Back in Anger; WHAT’s What the Butler Saw
Audiences must have developed shock absorbers over the course of the past 50 years.
By CAROLYN CLAY | June 24, 2008

Winner takes all

The Four of Us at Merrimack Rep; Spin at Zeitgeist Stage Company
Itamar Moses takes the buddy vehicle and twists it early and often in The Four of Us.
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 22, 2008

Fie, society

The Little Dog Laughed at SpeakEasy; The Misanthrope at New Rep
Frailty, thy name is society — or so suggest two comedies of manners currently on view but written 340 years apart.
By CAROLYN CLAY | January 22, 2008

Love bites

A Marvelous Party; Mr. Marmalade; Misalliance
Noël Coward may not have been born in a trunk, but he moved into one early.
By CAROLYN CLAY | July 18, 2007

Dream time

Einstein's Dreams at MIT
MIT professor Alan Lightman's first novel Einstein's Dreams doesn't have a plot or developing characters.
By IAN SANDS | April 24, 2007

Freedom fighters

The Pillowman at New Rep; 1776 at Lyric Stage
Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, which is getting its area premiere at New Repertory Theatre (at the Arsenal Center for the Arts through October 1), is a superficially clever play.
By STEVE VINEBERG | September 12, 2006

Eternal questions

The Beard of Avon at the Publick; Happy Days at Gloucester
Bard or beard — that is the question.
By CAROLYN CLAY | July 11, 2006

Alter ego

Jenny Chow is in good hands at WHAT
Jennifer Marcus is afraid, very afraid.
By IRIS FANGER | May 31, 2006

Snickers over knickers

The Lyric Stage airs Steve Martin’s Underpants
With fame often comes overexposure. But in Steve Martin’s The Underpants , which he adapted from German writer Carl Sternheim’s 1910 farce Die Hosen , the fame is over exposure.
By CAROLYN CLAY | January 12, 2006