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MEGAN GRUMBLING

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Review: USM's production of Pinter's Betrayal

Affairs of memory
For years, married literary agent Jerry (Sage R. Landry) has conducted a love affair with Emma (Meredith Lamothe), the wife of his best friend, Robert (Patrick Molloy), a book publisher.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | November 16, 2010

Review: Rolling Die gets Closer

How close is too close?
The relativity of truth is one of the enduring problems of the last half-century, and it is particularly gray and dangerous in Patrick Marber's 1996 drama Closer .

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | November 11, 2010

Review: Ghosts, people, booze flow together in AIRE's The Seafarer

Mixing spirits
When it comes to ghosts and other supernatural catalysts, Halloween's theatrical repertoire is actually rivaled by that of the Yuletide season.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | November 03, 2010

Review: Crushing heartbreak on the American plains

Family bonds
Osage County, Oklahoma is a hot, landlocked span of plains on the border of Kansas.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 20, 2010

Review: Summer Blink

Lovemaking, confrontations, and unanswered calls
If autumn and your imminent mid-30s are starting make you feel too sluggish, static, or reasonable, you might consider viewing Summer Blink , a new Seacoast-area movie that limns volatility and sexual curiosity circa age 18.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 20, 2010

Review: Mad Horse's new-venue debut with Six Degrees

Not far at all
Last weekend was momentous one for Mad Horse: The theater company launched its 25th season, and welcomed audiences into its much-anticipated new performance space at Lucid Stage.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 12, 2010

Acorn opens stripped-down Studio Series

Character study
This autumn Acorn Productions adds another venture to its already myriad theatrical offerings.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 13, 2010

Review: Mad Horse's Dark Night series returns

A pleasing menu
For three years now, on the midweek evenings when their main stage show is off and the theater is normally "dark," Mad Horse has staged a whole second batch of theatrical diversions.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 13, 2010

Review: Portland Stage's The 39 Steps works the funny bone

Comedy, not suspense
The driving force of Hitchcock's 1939 film The 39 Steps is suspense, as unwitting bachelor Richard Hannay gets caught up in espionage, train escapes, weapons technology, and the future of Europe and the world.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 07, 2010

Go inside radio drama

Recordings
The tale-tellers behind Final Rune Productions create what they call "stories for the ear."

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 07, 2010

Review: Steampunk at the Players' Ring

Metallic myths
Since they began gaining mass popularity in the '80s, the antique copper laser-guns, cog-studded corsets and alternate electronic empires of the steampunk genre have been buzzing the cultural circuitry ever more.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | October 06, 2010

Review: Seacoast Rep's clever Rooms

Rock and love
Monica (Christine Dulong), a go-getter songwriter and Glasgow’s "young Jewish entertainer of the year," at first seems a poor match for snarky rocker Ian (Graham Bailey), who hides out in his bedroom noodling on his guitar and taking slugs from a flask. ("Can you blame me?" he asks. "Have you seen the public lately?")

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | September 22, 2010

Fall Theater Preview: Not quite Oklahoma!

August: Osage County + steampunk robots
Perhaps the most anticipated Maine premiere this season is the darkly caustic family apocalypse of August: Osage County (October 14-November 7), the much-lauded 2007 tragicomedy by Tracey Letts, to be produced by the GOOD THEATER .

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | September 15, 2010

Review: Watch Born Yesterday, don't act that way

See for yourself
Born Yesterday recalls the optimism of the post-World War II era, when the economy was booming, the Good War had made the world rational and safe for democracy, and millions of Americans were taking advantage of the GI Bill.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | September 08, 2010

Naked truths

Ribald, and sobering, tales of first encounters
Although this review of My First Time , a show about virginity loss, appears in our Student Survival Guide issue, several of the play's characters are well into their 30s and still — deliberately or not — waiting.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | August 26, 2010

Monty Python takes the stage at MSMT

Airspeed + swallows
"Adult Situations," a sign in the theater lobby promises, though as my companion eagerly commented pre-curtain, the disclaimer should perhaps also include a warning of "Childish Situations."

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | August 18, 2010

Isn't it swell?

MSMT's Chicago is a wry spectacle
The musical satire Chicago first hit the boards in 1975, the same year as A Chorus Line , and you could say that the two shows highlight two sides of the era's ethos: The latter follows dancers through feel-good, encounter-group-style personal affirmations; the former charts a dancer-murderess in her flashy, cynical rise to celebrity queen.

By: MEGAN GRUMBLING | August 04, 2010

Freeport Shakespeare stages a fully appointed premiere

Outdoor Bard-ing
A new opportunity for free al fresco Shakespeare launches this week in Freeport: The Freeport Shakespeare Festival stages its premiere, a richly laden production of The Tempest , from August 3-6 in L.L. Bean's Discovery Park, directed by Julie George-Carlson, who is also founder and Artistic Director.