Review: Why Marry? (theater review)

Originally published
on March 11, 2013

By Donald Munro

[Editor’s Note: We re-run this today in recognition of the recent opening of The One-Act Play That Goes Wrong. We have been unable to find a review, so we can’t report whether whatever was supposed to go wrong did.]

Theater Review: Plus One

Artwork by Maria Oglesby
(for review cited below)

A mom’s review of her son’s work

By Cynthia Barnett

What does a mom feel when she watches the premier performance of her son’s play? Curiosity, nervousness, excitement, pride? Maybe all of the above. But when it was over on Monday, September 10, at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre in Los Angeles, I sat in my seat in amazement. Or rather, I joined the many in the intimate little theatre who rose in standing ovation for the two actors of Plus One, which was written and directed and acted in by my son.

In Memoriam: Edward Albee

By Jonathan Price

Edward Albee died last month. It wasn’t exactly a surprise; he was 88 [March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016]. But like many recent prominent deaths, it made me think. Edward Albee always made you think and feel. He was one of the great American playwrights of the twentieth century, and certainly by far the greatest of my contemporaries. Of course, no one can say such a thing for sure, since it is a matter of opinion – of many opinions over time. Nevertheless, in any week Broadway sports perhaps 30 plays or dramas, and then there is off-Broadway, which Albee helped to invent. Over the years, that’s a lot of plays, and the competition is intense. No one, I guess, sees all the plays, or reads all the plays. But Albee seems to me like a great pro golfer – Tiger Woods, or Jack Nicklaus. In a very competitive field, where audiences and critics are always demanding, he stands out.

Review: Why Marry? (theater review)

By Donald Munro

The title of the 1917 play “Why Marry?” is, of course, a question. Another that might come to mind is this: How could characters from nearly 100 years ago possibly have anything relevant to say about marriage as an institution?
    It turns out the answer is quite a lot, as we learn in Fresno City College’s studious and insightful production....
    Director James Knudsen modernized the production by trimming it from three acts to two and excising some of the repetitive and archaic language. Even when it comes to such “in the past” themes as women’s suffrage and divorce, however, what remains doesn’t seem hoary or old-fashioned....

Full review on the Fresno Bee website
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Copyright © 2013 by Donald Munro, Fresno Bee

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