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Amazing Untold Stories of Catalogues, by Jonathan Kalb
Two pieces by the British experimental troupe Forced Entertainment perform the unlikely feat of limning the entirety of human life via an absurd and obsessive gesture of listing.

Exclamation Point, by Kevin Byrne
In its latest madcap exploration of human fallibility and impossible idealism, the National Theatre of the United States of America turns its satirical guns on the Chautauqua tent-shows that toured rural America in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Best Supporting Roles, by Loren Edelson
In the new Classical Theatre of Harlem/Harlem Stage co-production of Chekhov's Three Sisters, directed by Christopher McElroen, the supporting characters take center stage.

Round Two/Round One, by Eric Bentley
Bentley was the translator of the American premiere of Arthur Schnitzler's Reigen (La Ronde) in 1955. In this preface to his new version of the play, he makes the case for reading play as art rather than propaganda.

RECENT ARTICLES

Our Caretaker, by Lydia Stryk
A contemporary playwright living "somewhere between Berlin and New York" describes the irreplaceable presence of Harold Pinter.

The Looking Glass, by Caridad Svich
Designed for performance in an art gallery, Tim Crouch's new work England is an experiment in identity-exchange and a tour-guide-style, continent-hopping journey through broken love, life-threatening illness and the longing to transcend cultural divides.

Modern Geek Theater, by Paul David Young
Joseph Silovsky's one-man, one-robot show The Jester of Tonga is delightful immersion in geeky, resourceful, low-tech invention, but it's also oddly ambivalent about its subject matter and evasive about the author's connection to it

The Long and the Short of It: An Interview with Tim Etchells, by Jonathan Kalb
The principal writer and director of the British experimental theater group Forced Entertainment speaks about the company's "durational" performances that last between six and twenty-four hours.

Nothing But the Truth, by Terry Stoller
A new collection of essays and other texts about contemporary documentary theater explores the techniques and thought processes behind "verbatim plays."

On a Burning Altar, by Caridad Svich
The belated New York premiere of Sarah Kane's scandalous 1995 play Blasted shows how much larger this much-discussed playwright's work always was than its original Cool Britannia context suggested.

A Note on Death, Modernism, and Mark Morris's Staging of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, by Martin Harries
In 1941, Prokofiev disclaimed the tragic ending of his ballet Romeo and Juliet as a "barbarism," inserting a happy ending instead. Now Mark Morris's staging of the later version revives the question of which ending was truly barbaric.

Coming of Age: Mamet at Sixty, by Robert Vorlicky
David Mamet claimed to have converted to conservatism in a notorious Village Voice essay earlier this year. A probing article uses his two most recent plays, November and Keep Your Pantheon, to show that the full truth is a bit more complicated than that.

Vijay Tendulkar (1928-2008), a tribute by Balwant Bhaneja
A translator and adaptor reflects on the life and career of one of India's foremost playwrights, the greatest of an embattled group of modern writers who subjected Indian social reality to merciless scrutiny.

Ophelia, Thrice Born, by Loren Edelson
Aya Ogawa's new play Oph3lia interweaves three different tales of adolescent girls and young women who embody and embellish aspects of Shakespeare's fallen heroine.

Macbeth's Young Frankenstein Moment, by Adam Casdin
The much-ballyhooed version of the Scottish play starring Patrick Stewart is in fact "overstimulated" and weakened by the same amped-up "hurly burly" as several other current Broadway blockbusters.

Breaking Ice, by Alexis Soloski
An American critic journeys to Reykjavik for the first version of "Lokal, an international festival of art and performance."

The Gold-Painted Plaster Leg of Love, by Kevin Byrne
The National Theatre of the United States of America's production of Moliere's Don Juan is another of the company's brilliant exercises in authentic fakery.

A Playwright's Worries, by Theresia Walser
A well-known German playwright breaks a cultural taboo by speaking her mind about the uses and abuses of director's theater. An essay translated by Claudia Wilsch Case.

In a Garden State: Jason Grote in conversation with Caridad Svich
The author of 1001, recently premiered at the Denver Center Theatre and Baruch Performing Arts Center in NYC, speaks about politics, boredom, surviving as a playwright, and what it's like to be from New Jersey.

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