This is all directed by Shea with his customary snappy pace on a bare stage comprised mainly of two crossed runways. Costume designer Ron Cesario deserves extra credit for festive masquerade costumes that range from parson to centurion, milkmaid to gypsy. Among the many well-portrayed fringe characters, John Michael Richardson stands out as Flutter, a gossip who never gets his facts straight.
When 2nd Story Theatre artistic director Shea scheduled the obscure Cowley play as a follow-up to Farquhar’s, it seemed like that might be mainly for symmetry. Well, if these two plays were the only evidence, Cowley would have proved to be head and shoulders above the frequently staged Farquhar. Actually, Cowley’s plays were popular to her contemporaries, skewering dictatorial husbands and encouraging their independent-minded wives. Interest fell off in the 19th century, and by now she has joined the ranks of terrific female writers neglected by white, male canon-compilers. Kudos to 2nd Story for helping to correct the record.
Related:
The Misanthrope, I is another, The circle game, More 
- The Misanthrope
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to be perfect.
- I is another
Lothar Berfelde was born both a generation too late and a generation too early, growing up as he did in Berlin when the Nazis were coming to power in the '30s.
- The circle game
It’s a very funny reminder that laughter can make such absurdity almost worthwhile.
- Home unsweet home
European existentialist philosophers grandly designated fear and trembling — and subsets — as the default state of the human condition.
- Serious business
Playwright and director Moisés Kaufman likes to say that Oscar Wilde was the first performance artist.
- Not aht
What a pity that Samuel Beckett’s plays aren’t more widely appreciated.
- Encore!
Oh, what a jaded bunch of seat-warmers we can become, those of us who see a lot of theater — good theater, that is. But now and then we encounter a production or a performance that reminds us of what we knew all along.
- Derailed
If A Streetcar Named Desire were a person, it wouldn't be able to sleep at night, tossing and turning in a fever sweat, aching for basic human connection.
- A different angle
“That’s what I demand of my actors, that they come in with ideas and work,” Peckham insists. “I’m not interested in someone who stands there and says, ‘What do you want me to do?’"
- Wave, goodbye
Who needs snakes on a plane when they infest so many stage families?
- Short ’n’ sweet
2nd Story Theatre has kicked off its Short Attention Span Theatre with Wave : seven short plays, no waiting; all but one a comedy, so not much time to rest your grin.
- Less
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Theater
, Entertainment, Performing Arts, Theater, More
, Entertainment, Performing Arts, Theater, Theatrical Plays, George Farquhar, Ed Shea, John Michael Richardson, Jamie Dufault, Dillon Medina, Ron Cesario, Less
