Written by Alina Mae Wilson

It’s kind of funny that even though I remember reading the play for school, before last night, I don’t think I would have been able to tell you that much about the story.  Perhaps I only partially read the script.  Or perhaps I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have been.  I suppose it would be fitting then for me to only recollect part of it, because, as the narrator and leading man Tom is kind enough to inform us at the start, this is not a true-to-life depiction of the events as they happened in his life.  This is, as he says, a “memory” and an “illusion.”  More specifically it’s his memory, and he’s weaving the illusion.  Needless to say, a plot that starts off so clearly committed to pondering the question “What is real?” is a story that promises to be interesting, if not downright thought-provoking.   Continue Reading

Written by Patrick Chavis 

Plays are a great medium for focusing on one subject. You’ve got a stage, actors, a few props, and –potentially–maybe only a few scene changes. For the most part, plays are very good at stripping away the excess of the exterior and uncovering the inter-workings of the people and ideas right in front of you. Theresa Rebeck’s play The Understudy (running now at The Modjeska Playhouse) is one of those plays. However, it tries to walk a tightrope between comedy and drama, with jokes that fail to bring laughs and dramatic moments which lack weight.    Continue Reading