Stage Write

  There’s always something new and exciting at the American Players Theatre in Wisconsin and this season is no exception. APT’s core players never disappoint and the younger performers provides a wonderful suffusion of energy and passion to each production. One of the best aspects of APT is the way it highlights its performers in multiple shows throughout each season. At any given time audience members can see a single performer in a modern drama, a Shakespearean comedy and a tragedy in the same weekend. Both Brian Mani and Greta Wohlrabe performed in all three shows I was able to see. They showed their comedic side in Twelfth Night, took on tragic roles in Troilus and Cressida and then portrayed the complex relationship between former lovers in Skylight. APT defies typecasting, allowing its performers to stretch and grow with each role, juggling multiple shows each season with apparent ease. APT always does a fantastic job with each element in its shows. The sets, wh...

Fallen Angels is currently on the Indiana Repertory Theatre’s Upperstage. The Nöel Coward’s farce serves up a frothy treat, just like the champagne the characters drink throughout the show. The 2 ½ hour production has two intermissions, but the time flies by as the three act play provides continuous laughs. As is the case in all farces, there is confusion and hilarity. Two “happily” married women watch their lives unravel when they receive a postcard from an old lover announcing his imminent arrival. Their husbands have left for a golfing weekend and the wives are left alone to sort through the mess before they return. It’s all restraint and repression at first, but rapid fire dialogue and copious amounts of alcohol quickly liven things up. The subject matter is tame by today’s standards, but when it was written in 1925, it must have been scandalous. The two couples, Jane and Willy and Julia and Fred, have the perfect stiff upper lip relationships. Set in 1950s London, the play s...