Stage Write

In 2001 an unarmed black man was killed by a Cincinnati police officer. A peaceful protest turned dangerous in the following days as the city erupted into riots. If that sounds a bit too familiar to you, you aren’t alone. The subject matter is achingly relevant. In the midst of the chaos, a small family hunkers down in their home above their dry-cleaning business. When the son, Felix, returns home with a drunk white man in tow the tension boils over. The dialogue between the mother and her twin children feels real and quickly pulls you into their comfortable family dynamic. There were quite a few stumbles over lines in this production, which can take you out of the flow of the play, but it wasn’t too distracting. It’s only worth noting because, unlike live theatre performances, a recorded production will not change from night to night.  Truths are revealed as the riots rage on and important issues are addressed. Hearing about the black experience, the unavoidable hurdles they fac...

It’s fitting that the last main stage play at the current Phoenix Theatre was the Pulitzer-Prize-winning “Sweat”. It was full of gritty dialogue, realistic portrayals of regular life, a diverse cast, and had an ending that left you reeling long after the final bow. The show closed this past weekend but as the Phoenix wraps up its time at the old church theater and prepares for its move to its new home on Illinois, you have one more chance to see a play in a building that has held 30 years of great performances.  “Fairfield” opens this weekend on the intimate Basile stage. A grade school is thrown into chaos when a young white teacher decides use role playing to celebrate Black history month with her first grade class. Emotions run high and prejudices are revealed as the parents and superintendent get involved. The script is full of dark humor and is reminiscent of “Gods of Carnage”. The play’s conversations are all too familiar, but they’re approached in a way that uses humo...

The Phoenix Theatre closes its 30 th season with a delightful show specifically geared towards women. Love, Loss, and What I Wore offers a string of brief vignettes about momentous events in women’s lives and the clothes they associate them. Nora Ephron’s ode to her closet and the memories each item holds is sweet and endlessly relatable. Like the films that made her famous (When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail) the play is both funny and touching. The dialogue quickly jumps from one person to the next in the five-person cast. The production could have been cliché, embracing generalizations about women and their love of shopping and clothes. Instead it focuses on the feelings that a piece of clothing can ignite in a person: nostalgia, regret, longing, excitement, etc. Any woman can identify, not because we all love clothes, but because we all have stories of love and loss that make us who we are. Men can obviously also identify with those feelings, but they might not remem...

The always original Phoenix Theatre is currently hosting the world premiere of 'And her hair went with her.' The play is written by Zina Camblin who stars, along with Milicent Wright, in the production. The show focuses on two women who work in a beauty salon. Camblin is Angie, an intellectual single mother in her 20s who hopes to change the world. Jasmine, played by Wright, is in her 50s and has become more settled in her views of others and goals for herself. The pair work side by side and though they spar and bicker about their differing opinions they have become true friends. Their love for Nina Simone and excitement about her upcoming concert is another thread which bonds them together. Camblin and Wright are the only two actors in the show. They each play four characters, changing from role to role with the switch of a wig. The ladies play a slew of customers that breeze in and out of the beauty shop for new hairdos. Each of the women have their own eccentric qualities. T...