Sex With Strangers

Kyle Coffman & JoAnna Rhinehart

Philadelphia Theatre Company, located in The Suzanne Roberts Theatre, Broad & Lombard Streets, is presenting Sex With Strangers through May 8.  Olivia Lago (JoAnna Rhinehart), a teacher with one published novel, has come to spend some time in a writer's lodge located in a remote area in order to give herself some quiet space to write. Haunted by mixed reviews of her first novel, she has little confidence in the work she has near to completion. Enter Ethan Kane (Kyle Coffman) who has a writing deadline of his own. Never before have two such opposite personalities been marooned in a raging snowstorm together. He, an outgoing, confident, successful and impertinent young writer of trash… "Sex With Strangers" is a compilation of his exploitations of a multitude of women over the period of a year.  She, an older, reflective woman with great writing skills but little self-confidence or ability to bear criticism…Her second novel is kept close to the chest. And yet, what are they to do when stranded in the middle of a blizzard with neither food nor internet but only bottles of wine to sustain them?  Kyle gives a strong performance as the brash young writer, but JoAnna Rhinehart’s performance is outstanding. She expresses a wide range of raw emotions from giddiness to anger, fear and sorrow.  The creative team has greatly enhanced this production. Scott Killian’s musical interludes between scenes are mood changers.  Christopher Bailey’s lighting designs have aptly portrayed the passage of time. Jason Simms has created a double set; one for the first and another for the second act that brings applause from the audience. This is far from a comedy, but playwright Laura Eason has generously sprinkled laugh lines throughout the play. It is fascinating to observe the characters’ role reversals see-saw back and forth. For more information or tickets to see this compelling work, call 215-985-0420 or visit online at PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org.  

Exit Strategy

Philadelphia Theatre Company is presenting an East Coast premiere of a bomb shell.  Exit Strategy is a co-production with New York’s Primary Stages and will move to the Cherry Lane Theatre in March.  It can be seen at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 489  S. Broad Street, through February 28.  It is not often that you have an opportunity to see an original drama in Philadelphia immediately before it reaches the stage in New York.  Grab this opportunity.  You won’t regret it.  Exit Strategy has an excellent ensemble cast.  Michael Cullen, Deirdre Madison, Aimé Donna Kelly, Brandon Pierce, Rey Lucas, Christina Nieves and Ryan Spahn are all involved to some degree or another in coping with a failing school destined to be closed and fighting back to make the administration allow the school to remain open. Alliances change and altered attitudes are surprising.  Action is quick-paced and dialogue is contemporary.  Playwright Ike Holder gets to the soul of the heartbreak of a potential school-closing and the effect it has on so many-administration, faculty, and student body alike. For more information or tickets to this moving monument to comradery, cohesiveness, and concord, call 215-985-0420 or visit online at PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org. 

Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery

Adam Green, Matt Zambrano,
 Crystal Finn, Henry Clarke  &
Ron Menzel

The Philadelphia Theatre Company is presenting the McCarter Theatre/Arena Stage production of Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes’s Mystery through December 27. The production can be seen at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, Broad and Lombard Streets. The ensemble cast of Henry Clark, Crystal Finn, Adam Green, Ron Menzel and Matt Zambrano constantly skirt on and off the stage as different persona.  Their costume changes are lightning quick and nothing short of remarkable. The special effects are spell-binding. Lighting Designers Philip S. Rosenberg and Joel Shier have outdone themselves, using over 100 strobe lights to create the mood of the mysterious moor. Sound Designer Joshua Horvath has the audience members shrinking in their seats in fear of the hounds and set designer Daniel Ostling has made excellent use of the openings on the stage floor which allow people and props to appear and disappear almost magically. The plot in first act is a bit confusing, but enjoy the speed with which everything is done and be assured that everything will be tied up neatly in the second act. For more information or tickets, call 215-985-0429 or visit online at PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org. 

Disgraced

Amir, Emily,Isaac & Jory
making a toast

The Philadelphia Theatre Company, located in the Suzanne Roberts Theater, Broad and Lombard Streets, is presenting Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize winning Disgraced through November 8. This stimulating and provocative drama will have your head spinning for days. When an upper class Pakistani lawyer and his American wife invite a colleague and her husband to dinner, what begins with a cordial toast ends as an incendiary evening that leaves the audience gasping for breath. Amir (Pej Vahdat) is a self-proclaimed non-believer of Muslim descent, yet he is angered that his nephew Abe (Anthony Mustafa Adair) has Anglicized his name. .Friction ensues when his wife Emily (Monette Magrath), a white American girl, is making a name for herself in the art world by embracing the symbolism of Muslim art. .Emily has kept a secret from her husband Amir; Jory (Aimé Donna Kelly) has kept a secret from her colleague Amir; but it’s when Jory’s husband Isaac, the Jewish art critic (Ben Graney) gets into a discussion about Palestinians and Israelis, that sparks start to ignite. Suddenly the evening is no longer a polite social gathering as deeply ingrained feelings bubble to the surface. :”You don’t mean to say that you felt proud during 9/11?” Isaac asks in shock. “Maybe I did, just a little bit,” Amir responds. And the wreckage mounts from there .By the end of the evening, five lives are in ruins and the audience is in a state of shock. This show is not for the faint of heart but it is so captivating and thought provoking, such a magnificent study of human nature that you must make every effort to see it before it closes. Tickets are available at 215-985-0420 or by visiting online at PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org.