In a follow up to last year’s presentation of Angels in America, Part 1, the Maryland Ensemble Theatre has endeavored to complete the series with Angels in America, Part 2, Perestroika. The production of these two pieces is a monumental undertaking creating almost a seven-hour total theater experience.
It’s hard not to write a comparative review. The cast and design team remain relatively the same.
Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America, was ambitious in 1993, taking on difficult subject matter, and the Maryland Ensemble Theatre is ambitious to take on such a challenging production. ‘Set in the mid-1980s amid the AIDS crisis and the Regan administration, the characters struggle with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell’*. Originally intended for a season three years ago but sidelined by COVID, Angels now marks the MET’s 150th production overall and falls during its 25th anniversary,
What great ones do the less will prattle of— and here be the great ones: Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, in their 20th Anniversary season, presenting to you something certainly worth prattling about! Twelfth Night, directed by the company’s founding Artistic Director, Ian Gallanar, is arguably one of The Bard’s more sensible comedies and CSC does it a great justice with excellent performances, lively music, and a charming aesthetic that would float anyone’s boat.
Air and ink and make-believe. Isn’t that all theatre is when it comes down to it? But theatre isn’t flourish; it’s fundamental! Or so says the text of Lauren Gunderson’s The Revolutionists now on the main stage of the Maryland Ensemble Theatre. Directed by Gené Fouché, this meta-play within a meta-play of a play is a fundamental exploration of liberté, egalité, and sororité! Deep layers of freedom, equality, and sisterhood enveloped in the flavor of The French Revolution is what’s coming to the stage and it gets a little confusing,