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Kerr Lockhart

Recommended by Kerr Lockhart

  • EINAR'S RAGNAROK by Nora Louise Syran
    16 Jan. 2022
    “ EINAR'S RAGNAROK uses an ingenious frame of a present family crisis and a decision to be made to explore and explicate Norse and Icelandic mythology. At first, the names and settings are unfamiliar, but as it unfolds playwright Nora Louise Syran reveals the common ground that all lasting stories have, those essential family truths that connect us more than the alien nomenclature divides us. Its didactic qualities are perfectly disguised in an exciting, entertaining, and suspenseful package. I see a long future for this play. ”
  • Last Call at the Aardvark by Paul Stroili
    6 Sep. 2021
    “ Sure, the magician never actually appears on stage in LAST CALL AT THE AARDVARK, but playwright Paul Stroili keeps pulling the rabbits out of his hat until the Twist (you know, the dame, the frail) pulls a final twist.

    Stroili has a finely tuned ear for the Broadway rat-a-tat-tat talk of Hecht and MacArthur, Damon Runyon and the like, and he leads the audience down the garden path with a wheeze about a broken-down comic and a big-hearted stripper. But the climax is a coup de grace that is a coup de theatre.

    A great vehicle for three sharp actors. ”
  • Town Hall by Caridad Svich
    10 Jul. 2021
    “ Imagine there is a playwright with the rhythm, the cadence, the music of Samuel Beckett
    Who is the anti-Beckett
    Where Beckett is loneliness, despair, plunging into the abyss,
    Caridad Svich in TOWN HALL is about connection, memory, hope.
    As a play it is a proposal for a ceremony or interactive liturgy.
    Yes, the audience is involved, but not forced to perform
    Or to react in any particular way,
    But only to be present.
    Given the playwright's creativity in the digital medium, it would be interesting to see it reconceived for that format.
    A profound act of healing. ”
  • The Unmarrying Kind by Alice Josephs
    8 Jul. 2021
    “ Caution, there are leaking roofs to be repaired and wrong-way lighthouse beacons to illuminate a tumbledown household in THE UNMARRYING KIND by Alice Josephs, in which the main character leaves, unnoticed in the very first moment of the play so as to leave two hours of Transatlantic family sparks popping and barbaric yawps yawping. Josephs takes out Chekhov's gun, somewhat literally, but Sam Shepherd, Tracy Letts, and David Storey are lurking in the wings as well. With all those influences, Josephs fashions an inventive, cathartic and uplifting climax that will thrill an audience. A wonderful evening of vivid ensemble theater. ”
  • Tabloid by Marta Jorgensen (Missy M)
    5 Jul. 2021
    “ TABLOID by Marta Jorgensen is a mad, extravagant CANDIDE- in- reverse carnival, where all is for the worse, and the dark denizens of the world struggle mightily to make it so. Maybe there is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so, but framing can make everything bad, only in a bold, lusty, entertaining way. If you find THE SIMPSONS too subtle, JERRY SPRINGER too polite, and the SUN too fancy and elegant, you will be right at home in the world of TABLOID. ”
  • Fragile Minds by Rachel Feeny-Williams
    14 Jun. 2021
    “ What is it about families? The people we should be most honest with can be the people we construct the most elaborate lies for. Is it to protect them? Or ourselves? That's the situation Rachel Feeny-Williams explores in FRAGILE MINDS in which a family constructs an entire ecosystem of untruth on a foundation of a bigger untruth. The contortions the family members put themselves through to sustain this impossible construct is alternately hilarious and painful. A rich potential vehicle for an ensemble theatre which successfully maintains many strains at once, but all to a palpable and resonant effect. ”
  • Egg and Chips by Rachel Feeny-Williams
    28 May. 2021
    “ "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." - William Faulkner. EGGS AND CHIPS by Rachel Feeny-Williams illustrates this notion in this charming, wistful memory piece reminiscent of British working class plays like THIS HAPPY BREED. Feeny-Williams has an acute and precise ear, and non-natives like me will be whisked away and immersed in this disappearing world. But the object is not nostalgia, but the recognition that past and present live alongside each other, and memory is the key to self-understanding. I hope sweetness like this is not gone from our modern theatre. Your audience will love this play. ”
  • CYRANO ON THE MOON by Monica Cross
    13 May. 2021
    “ CYRANO ON THE MOON by Monica Cross is the sequel for you (a) if you love Cyrano de Bergerac, the character and the play; (b) you wish Roxanne had more agency and more voice in her own story; (c) you wish you knew how Roxanne had processed what she learns in the very last scene of Rostand's play; (d) you had hoped for a reconciliation between Cyrano and Christian; (e) you wonder how else the story might have turned out. A feast of visual and verbal delights. ”
  • What's My Line? by Alice Josephs
    8 Apr. 2021
    “ WHAT'S MY LINE cleverly uses the game show as a frame for a bravura lead performance for an actor of great range and power, in the role of the poet Louis Untermeyer. As the play unfolds, we learn of Untermeyer's complicated and troubling past, his prickly and difficult relationships with the people around him, including his estrangement from his son, and the controversial opinions that led to him being kicked off What's My Line. An exciting challenge for an actor, and no-guardrails ride for an audience. This one I'd like to see. ”
  • Solicitation by Ross Tedford Kendall
    14 Oct. 2020
    “ SOLICITATION by Ross Tedford Kendall is a very dark O. Henry story, complete with the patented twist ending. Kendall has a great feeling for rhythm, and the play provides a wonderful for two actors to maintain an exciting volley between them. The premise is so strong, in fact, that I wish this was the first scene of an entire twisted thriller. But it's thrilling on its own. ”

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