Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Israel Horovitz’s ‘North Shore Fish’ at Gloucester Stage Company When Israel Horovitz wrote “North Shore Fish” in 1986, the Gloucester fish packing industry was already in trouble. Plants were closing, and with the local fishing industry sputtering, those that remained in business were reduced to repackaging frozen filets from overseas rather than fresh local fish. […]


As much as I like community theater, I have to say that for this North Shore resident, Maynard’s Acme Theatre is a little outside my jurisdiction. But the opportunity to see Nancy Curran Willis direct David Mamet‘s American Buffalo last Saturday during the show’s opening weekend was one I just couldn’t pass up. The show […]


After the burning intensity of their last two shows – 9 Circles and Master Harold… and the Boys – for its summer season finale, Gloucester Stage Company sends us off into the cool autumn with a comedy. Set in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, Beth Henley’s Crimes of the Heart is a slice of Southern life, and its […]


War is hell, and in Bill Cain’s “9 Circles,” Iraq War veteran Private Daniel Reeves must descend through his own inferno in order to arrive at his only shot at redemption. But are all of the demons he encounters in this hell of his own making? That’s the question that he – and the audience […]


Through August 12, 2012 On those occasions when great writing, stunning performances and superb direction collide on stage, the result can be a theatrical experience from which it can take a while to come down – for the audience as well as the actors. The current Gloucester Stage Company production of Athol Fugard’s “Master Harold”… […]


Performances July 26, 27 and 28 You might assume that a play set in a beauty salon and featuring all female characters would appeal mainly to women – the theatrical equivalent of a “chick flick.” But after seeing the Next Door Theatre’s production of “Steel Magnolias,” what sticks with you are the play’s universal themes, […]


With a cast of 15, the Quannapowitt Players‘ “The Diary of Anne Frank” captures the terror, tension and tenderness experienced by two Jewish families being hidden from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II, as told by Anne Frank in her diary of her family’s two years in hiding. The production is directed by […]


Several hundred aging hipsters, baby boomers and a few relative youngsters packed the First Parish Church in Harvard Square on Friday, December 2, 2011 to see San Francisco Bay area legends, Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks. The Cambridge concert was the Boston area stop on the band’s “Holidaze in Hicksville” tour. A few minutes […]


It takes the Wakefield Independence Day Committee many months to put together the annual July Fourth Parade, and Monday’s parade was no exception. But even for mere spectators, attending the parade involves a good deal of advance planning in order to stake out a prime viewing spot. As early as Sunday afternoon there were so […]


On March 11, 2011, Scott Brown, the United States Senator who grew up in Wakefield, Massachusetts will be inducted into the Wakefield High School Alumni Hall of Fame. Even Sen. Brown, whose time growing up here was often far from idyllic, would probably concede that Wakefield wasn’t a bad place to grow up. Just after […]