My review of Lisa Kron’s IN THE WAKE has just been published on CultureVulture.net. I liked the play a lot.
“It’s stuffed with so many ideas about so many subjects that you can’t believe the author can pull it off, and yet she does, with the help of an able cast smartly directed by Leigh Silverman.
It helps that Kron situates her play in the midst of hyperarticulate characters who feast on ideas, starting with Ellen, a writer and political junkie (played by Marin Ireland) who opens the show with a howl of outrage: ‘I cannot believe the ruthlessness of the Republicans!’ It’s Thanksgiving 2000, and the as-yet unsettled presidential race between Gore and Bush clouds the dinner party assembling in Ellen’s living room: her schoolteacher boyfriend, Danny (Michael Chernus), his sister Kayla (Susan Pourfar) and her wife, Laurie (Danielle Skraastad), who live downstairs, and Ellen’s old friend Judy (Deidre O’Connell), an older woman who does humanitarian relief work in Africa and is on her way to her mother’s funeral in Kentucky.
You may think you know what’s going to come out of these characters’ mouths as they hurtle through Bush’s inauguration, 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, and W’s re-election. Trust me — you don’t. Kron spares us generic characters spouting pre-digested social commentary safely distributed along the political spectrum.”
You can read the complete review online here.
another eye opens 