Stage Write

Six week after giving birth I braved the outside world with my daughter for the first time completely on my own. We went to a breastfeeding support group at a local hospital. I was completely overwhelmed, sleep-deprived and somehow managed to get lost in the winding corridors. The adventure ended with me in tears in an elevator. I don’t often share personal details here, but the Phoenix Theatre’s production of Cry It Out hit close to home for me. Becoming a new parent is one of the most intense things you can experience. It is exhausting and beautiful and it brings you to your knees. It’s full of barely comprehensible paradoxes. You are immediately connected to generations of women who have done this incredible thing before you. You are also isolated as you try to learn how to survive while caring for a helpless newborn. The internet becomes a resource for tips and ideas while also becoming a place full of moms making different choices, ready to tell you how you’ve screwed up. I’ve...

When I first saw the Phoenix Theatre’s production of " The Lieutenant of Inishmore " in 2008 I loved the unique feel of the Irish black comedy. The theatre’s current show “The Cripple of Inishmaan” is by the same playwright, Martin McDonagh, and has a similar tone. Set on the Aran Islands in 1934, we see the chaos caused when a Hollywood director visits to make a film. There’s a cruelty in small towns. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. They’ve all grown up together, so there’s a comfort level that tends to ignore privacy. No one flinches in calling someone a degrading nickname or referring to an embarrassing moment in their past, because it’s all common knowledge. It’s that very familiarity that can be so claustrophobic to residents. Nathan Robbins is our title character, Cripple Billy, and he feels more suffocated than anyone. Each member of the excellent cast adds their own eccentric layer to the rich fabric of the community. Ryan O’Shea is the bras...