Articles by Jane C. Elkin

Unseen Deserves to Be Seen

Identity and integrity figure large in this Dignity Players’ showing that addresses the masks we hide behind.

What is truth: fixed standard or fluid interpretation? Is a visionary artist an outsider or an insider? Is an expat a pioneer or a coward? Is a fist perhaps just a hand? Is an ex-lover ever a friend? These are just a few of the themes in Donald Margulies’ 1992 Obie Award-winning play, Sight Unseen, a provocative and entertaining look at an artistic superstar and the forces that shape him. The themes of identity and integrity figure large in this show, the first in...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin; 3/10/11

Beyond Therapy

You’ll have to decide who or what is Beyond Therapy in this Bay Theatre Company performance

Beyond Therapy — which opened for a Valentine’s Day revival at The Bay Theatre Company — is about love, sex and self-awareness in modern society. Specifically in New York in 1981, where everyone is messed up. This absurd, R-rated farce features many hilarious moments at the expense of the mental health industry and the gay community. But its premise is too forced and tedious for this mainstream mom. Call me square, but I just don’t get it. By...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin; 2/17/11

Inventing van Gogh

Prime up on the Impressionists to appreciate this Colonial Players performance

Colonial Players’ Inventing van Gogh requires an investment. Come mentally refreshed with a primer on the Impressionists, and you’ll enjoy it. Come unprepared with a weary mind, and you’ll likely be nodding off mid-way through Act I, as much of the audience did on opening night. The dialogue can be tedious. Still, I enjoyed this drama, despite several atrocious French accents. After all, what’s not to appreciate about obsession? It’s what drives the great among us...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin; 2/10/11

Playing Sick

Two Colonial Players shift stage to teach medics to treat you right

It’s a classic case of depression. The patient can’t sleep. She’s losing weight, she fidgets, feels guilty and is withdrawn since her partner’s fatal accident. Finally she sobs out her woes to the psychiatric nurse practitioner, who listens attentively to her story. “It’s not you fault,” the nurse assures his patient, Dianne Hood. She’s doing the right thing in coming for help, and he understands what she’s going through. With his comfort...

Article - Features; by Jane C. Elkin; 1/13/11

Bay Theatre Company’s The Foreigner

Forget the holidays and laugh!

The Bay Theatre Company hits new heights of hilarity with The Foreigner, Larry Shue’s award-winning comedy about personal transformation and miscommunication. Judging from opening night’s nearly full house, local audiences are finally taking note. It’s about time, too, for Annapolis’ only professional theatre, always solid, has matured into exceptional. Perhaps word has spread that the season opener — Lips Together, Teeth Apart — was recommended as a...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin; 12/23/10

Back on the Boards

Reviewer turns actor in Mrs. California

It looks a lot easier from the audience.That’s one thing I’ve learned by returning to the stage after years on the reviewing end of community theater. Musical theater and opera were my first loves. Now I am captivated more by non-musicals, because I realize that actors who can’t lean on song and dance to sell their stories are the bravest performers of all. How would I fare, on stage, without my singing voice to pave my way? The opportunity to find out presented itself...

Article - Bay Reflections; by Jane C. Elkin; 5/13/10

Eternal Father Strong to Save x Herndon?

Is there a message in the Naval Academy’s challenge to the traditional rite of passage?

History was made this week at the U.S. Naval Academy for the 71st and perhaps final year when the Plebe class scaled Herndon, a diminutive obelisk, to exchange a Plebe Dixie Cup cap for a midshipman’s combo cover. Formerly the final rite of passage earning Fourth Class midshipmen the “carry-on” privileges — and freedom from picayune circumscription — that upperclassmen enjoy, May 24’s feat resembled former assaults less in deed than in name. In today...

Article - Places; by Jane C. Elkin; 5/27/10

Two Storms by Iain S. Baird

It’s not for everybody, but for the 217,000 American men who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, this book is a beacon through the storm.

Annapolis sparked a love story 40 years ago when Iain Baird took the girl he’d marry sailing for their first date. Life’s strange journey took them back where it began for retirement — with Hurricane Isabelle in their rearview mirror. But before Annapolis the second time around came Virginia, Louisiana and two more deadly storms: Hurricane Katrina and prostate cancer. Baird has written Two Storms: Prostate Cancer and Katrina in New Orleans to chronicle his tale of...

Article - Books; by Jane C. Elkin; 9/16/10

Not even 2nd Star Can Freshen Jake’s Women

This 1992 Neil Simon comedy was a snoozer in the 1996 film adaptation, and it remains drowsy in this productions.

Jake’s Women, 2nd Star Productions’ fall season opener, presents an attractive setting for some fine local talent. But despite a valiant effort on the company’s part, this 1992 Neil Simon comedy fails to grab the audience by the collar and draw them back for more. It was a snoozer in the 1996 film adaptation, even with an all-star cast headed by Alan Alda, and it remains drowsy in this production. José de la Mar is excellent in the lead role as an emotionally distant writer...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin; 9/2/10

Dignity Players’ Damned Good Judas

Saved or damned? You’ll have to book a seat to find out.

Salvation or damnation? Thumbs up or thumbs down? Sounds like heavy stuff, but the trial of history’s most notorious traitor, Judas Iscariot, is the funniest show of the summer: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, playing through August 14 at Dignity Players of Annapolis. This is Purgatory, after all, where everyone bides time and anything can happen. Where two and three-quarter hours fly by like a nun’s confession while 15 players portray 26 personalities from the Gospels to the...

Article - Theatre Reviews; by Jane C. Elkin; 8/12/10