Some time ago, I met Kathleen Widdoes at a writers’ conference in Prague. Most people who recognize the name at all know Widdoes from her role on As the World Turns, but she is a classically trained stage actress; I remembered her as a vital, witty and beautiful Beatrice in…

Imagine you’re at an unnamed beach, surrounded by sand, salt-laden air and the sound of the sea rolling endlessly in and out, everything around you in muted shades of beige, silver and blue. By the weathered boardwalk, you meet two enchanting sisters. Lucy, a banker, is balanced, grounded, logical and…

As the Bush administration moves America toward a permanent state of war against an undefined and therefore unconquerable enemy — war that is leaching the country’s coffers, grinding up young soldiers, causing suffering overseas and enriching the president’s cronies — it’s good to hear the cynical, angry voice of Bertolt…

There’s not much depth to The Smell of the Kill, but it’s wonderfully malicious and a lot funnier than any of the sketch comedy I’ve seen lately. Nicky, Molly and Debra are thrown together once a month by their husbands’ friendship; on this particular occasion, they cluster in the shining…

The setting is the living room of Tobias and Agnes, a wealthy East Coast couple, and the play is a twisted descendent of the classic drawing-room comedy, complete with elegant furniture and a much-frequented drinks table. There’s even a properly rebellious daughter. But no servants enter the picture, and no…

In some of the skits, the material is funnier than the execution; in others, the execution is better than the material. Overall, Red Scare is a hit-and-miss proposition — with mildly amusing moments alternating with laugh-yourself-silly scenes and a few out-and-out clunkers. Red Scare is a production of Chicago’s famed…

The rift between those who believe in a punitive God — a God who insists on absolute obedience and condemns sensual delight — and those who see God as the apotheosis of love, joy and freedom runs through hundreds of years of history. It also shapes the politics of contemporary…

Okay, it’s a world premiere of a play by a local writer, but the question remains: Why is a company like Modern Muse, which in the past has demonstrated a certain level of integrity and artistic ambition, presenting a work as weak as The Raft? There’s one slightly original element:…

When critics review the work of August Wilson, the same words tend to recur. Rich. Musical. Textured. Multi-layered. And here are a few phrases that apply both to his entire output and specifically to Gem of the Ocean, now playing at the Denver Center: a titanic work; a grand vision,…

During intermission at Germinal Stage Denver a couple of years ago, Ed Baierlein was keeping watch over the lobby. “Look who’s here,” he said, his voice gentle. I turned and found Al Brooks standing behind me. Al smiled hugely, took my hand in both of his, and said something about…

Somewhere in the 1970s, we learned that women could like each other, that female friendship was precious, and that society’s insistence that women’s concerns were inherently more trivial than the concerns of men was blind and stupid. Though she might pass much of her time shopping or in the kitchen,…

I was sitting in the Ricketson Theatre during the first half of Jesus Hates Me, reasonably engaged but thinking that Wayne Lemon’s play really wasn’t as funny as advertised — although it was sort of funny now and then, sometimes even startlingly and unexpectedly funny, the kind of funny that…

Some people believe that artists are uniquely sensitive to their times and that their work can serve as a kind of canary in the coal mine, warning of danger. Tony Kushner, author of the brilliant and much-acclaimed Angels in America, clearly wrote A Bright Room Called Day in a state…

It’s hard to deal with murder — particularly the rape, murder and dismemberment of a child — without being exploitative. It’s also hard to explore the issue of forgiveness without resorting to sentimentality. Bryony Lavery’s play Frozen, currently at Curious Theatre Company, succeeds on both counts. The three-character play involves…

When the Soviet Union fell on Christmas Day 1991, politicians and pundits in the West began insisting that Marxism was dead, that history had proved the theory was bankrupt and led inexorably to misery and oppression. From now on, they said, our world would be shaped by unfettered capitalism, and…

There are two things to be said about this production of Aida, a rock-pop version of the Verdi opera with music by Elton John and lyrics by Tim Rice. The first is that it’s a shlocky, sentimental piece of theater, with sappy music and idiotic book and lyrics. Almost all…

The best scene in The Credeaux Canvas, the first offering of the new Identity Theatre Company, is an extended nude scene, in which a young woman poses for a painter. She is Amelia, a singer trying to make her way in New York; the painter is Winston, an art student,…

Everyone knows the story of Scrooge’s conversion from hard-eyed businessman to philanthropist in A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim’s incantation, “God bless us, every one,” has become a seasonal staple, right up there with twirling sugarplum fairies and twinkling-eyed Santas. But what if Dickens’s well-loved story ran off the rails? What…

Even for good institutions, change is necessary. The Laird Williamson-Dennis Powers adaptation of A Christmas Carol has been staged by the Denver Center Theatre Company for the past fifteen years, and I’ve always enjoyed it. But the best shows can grow stale and tired over time, and it’s hard to…

There’s a sad and bitter scene that occurred many years ago when my mother was dying of cancer that seems to illustrate precisely the conundrum at the heart of Edwin Sanchez’s Unmerciful Good Fortune. My mother was in the hospital, very close to the end, lying silent and shrunken in…