7.24.08
New Yorker illustrators to speak at The Mount
[PRESS RELEASE] Team behind New Yorkistan cover to sign books on Saturday, July 26
7.24.08
[THEATER REVIEW] The Violet Hour at Barrington Stage Company
review by CHRIS NEWBOUND of VARIETY and BERKSHIRE LIVING
7.24.08
[DANCE REVIEW] Alonzo King's Lines Ballet at Jacob's Pillow
review by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
7.23.08
Woodworkers to strut their stuff
[PRESS RELEASE] Annual exhibition at Berkshire Botanical Garden July 26-27
7.23.08
Marilyn Kalish painting of Lady Macbeth finds home at Shakespeare and Company
[PRESS RELEASE] Local artist and gallery owner's work hangs in new theater
7.22.08
Singer-songwriter Jess Klein returns to region
[PRESS RELEASE] Performs at Club Helsinki on August 17
7.22.08
Doctors remove malignant growth from James Levine's kidney
[PRESS RELEASE] No evidence cancer has spread
7.20.08
Why can't we do it the British way?
The English reduce carbon footprints of drafty old Victorian homes
7.13.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Los Lobos at the Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
11.14.07
Too much monkey business in New Delhi
from the New York Times
7.11.08
John Williams to conduct score to new Indiana Jones movie at Tanglewood
[Press release] 2008 TANGLEWOOD SEASON, WEEK FOUR, JULY 25-31
7.10.08
[DANCE REVIEW] Hofesh Shechter Company at Jacob's Pillow
review by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
7.6.08
[MUSIC REVIEW] Les Troyens, Part I, Tanglewood
review by SETH ROGOVOY, Berkshire Living Magazine
7.9.08
BERNICE LEWIS TO PERFORM FREE OUTDOOR CONCERT AT THE CLARK JULY 15
[PRESS RELEASE] Berkshire's top new-folk singer-songwriter to gig before the hometown crowd
7.7.08
The Dollyrots to Perform at Rock On! Indie Band Camp Workshop
[PRESS RELEASE] Concert at BCC on July 31
7.7.08
The Dollyrots to Perform at Rock On! Indie Band Camp Workshop
[PRESS RELEASE] Concert at BCC on July 31
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[THEATER REVIEW] LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! AT BTF
7.1.07
BERKSHIRE THEATRE FESTIVAL
Love! Valour! Compassion!
by Terrence McNally
Directed by Anders Cato
running through July 7, 2007
review by SETH ROGOVOY, editor-in-chief and critic-at-large, BERKSHIRE LIVING Magazine
(Stockbridge, Mass., June 22, 2007) -- Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! is being given a terrific production at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, with a cast of incredibly talented actors who do credit to McNally's witty script and tender, emotional story involving eight men in a series of visits to a country house in Dutchess County over a period of time during an AIDS-scarred era in the mid-1990s.
The production itself may be better than the play, which is somewhat stilted and bogged down by cliche and specificity that doesn't transcend its scenario. While the actors are all valiant in their portrayals of gay men attempting to find or perpetuate their loving relationships, they're forced to do so in a premise that is more disease-of-the-week TV docudrama than innovative theatricality.
That being said, the three-plus-hour play is full of tenderness and laughs, when it's not hectoring the audience through McNally's thinly veiled screeds placed in the mouths of some of his characters. The play was apparently written to be performed as a stripped-down, minimalist work, and this production is loyal to that bit of stage direction -- there is very little set to speak of, and minimal stagecraft other than acting.
Perhaps, however, if this play is to continue to be meaningful to audiences beyond those directly touched by its scenario, it's time for a version that is more overtly theatrical, using the complete tool kit of theater to make this premise more transcendent. One merely has to refer to the excellent rendition of The Glass Menagerie being performed over at BTF's Unicorn Theatre for comparison of another drama steeped in a very specific time and locale but one that through the magic of theater continues to speak to a wide range of theatergoers across time and space.
Seth,
You're absolutely right about "Love! Valour! Compassion!" and "A Glass Menagerie." Terrence McNally is no Tennessee Williams!
7/2/2007
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