Review of The Canterville Ghost at Shakespeare and Co.

Sept. 27 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall

(L-R) Alyssa Hughlett, Alexandra Lincoln,
Michael F. Toomey, Dana Harrison;
photos: Kevin Sprague

The Canterville Ghost now playing at Shakespeare and Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre is based, very loosely, on a novella by Oscar Wilde in which an American family moves into an old English castle inhabited by a three [...]

Review of Noel Coward in Two Keys at Berkshire Theatre Festival

In her review of “Noel Coward in Two Keys” at Berkshire Theatre Festival, Frances Benn Hall writes, “Just as his own songs have ornamented his plays, so do the two titles of these two swan song-plays seem to me to be Coward having his last fun with words, scoffing at prudery and coming out with just a song at twilight.”

Review of Private Lives at Barrington Stage Co.

Frances Benn Hall writes in her review of the revival of Noel Coward’s play Private Lives at Barrington Stage Co. in Pittsfield, MA, “…the play is a sheer delight from the moment the lights go off to rise on two identical balconies of a posh hotel on the French Riviera in 1930.”

Review of The Goat Woman of Corvis County at Shakespeare and Co.

The Goat Woman of Corvis County, written by Christine Whitley, is being given its world premiere in the new Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare and Co. in Lenox, MA.

Review of Othello at Shakespeare and Co.

Our chief theatre critic, Frances Benn Hall writes that “The current Othello now playing in repertory on the Founder’s stage through August 31 is the best production of tragedy that I have ever seen there.”

Review of Waiting For Godot at Berkshire Theatre Festival

Looking back on theatre history of the 20th century, it is apparent that one play has generated more speculation, interpretation, and ambiguity than any other single play as critics, academics, and audiences, troubled but delighted by it, try to extract from it the author’s intent as to meaning and production details.

Review of A Man For All Seasons at Berkshire Theatre Festival

Review of A Man For All Seasons at Berkshire Theatre Festival, the 1962 TONY award winning play by Robert Bolt. “The political cards are stacked against More from the beginning. The Common Man will keep us aware of that. Dukes and Cardinals will fawn with Kings. And a man must live, as best he can, in a world such as man finds himself in.”

Review of The Violet Hour at Barrington Stage Co.

Barrington Stage Company’s July 20, 2008 production of The Violet Hour reviewed by Frances Benn Hall, who wrote: “This has been a difficult play to describe, the mood and tone shift from act one to act two having jolted, as probably the author intended. However, for me, the second act was too cluttered, needing streamlining …”

Review of The Three Sisters at Williamstown Theatre Festival

Review of Three Sisters at Williamstown Theatre Festival

Review of The Book Club Play at the Berkshire Theatre Festival

If the bland title of playwright Karen Zacarias’ The Book Club Play now gracing the Berkshire Theatre Festival stage leads one to expect a predictable comedy concerning the motley types who inhabit the ubiquitous book clubs that seem to exist everywhere, think again.