Review

ORCHARD

at the Mark Taper Forum

OF LIGHT

at the Long Beach Playhouse

PRECIOUS PIGLET & HER PALS

It's hard to keep secrets—especially when cake and ice cream are involved. It is the lure of such "sweet" temptations that causes all the trouble in the barnyard. The pretty-in-pink Precious (perky Kelly Stables) and her pal Dawson Dog (Harley Jay) have planned a surprise party for the ...

Well

The play, which ran to acclaim at the Public Theater in spring 2004, has only grown more enamoring and affecting over time.

AGNES OF GOD

John Pielmeier's 1980 play explores a porous border between science and religion, but the epiphany here is in the flawless performance of Madison Dunaway as the unearthly young nun accused of murdering her newborn. Whether buoyed by technique or more divine inspiration, Dunaway floats in a world beyond plywood ...

THE PLAYGROUND

Michael Justen and Michelle Kaufer's multimedia theatre piece, inspired by true events, falls somewhere between gritty docudrama and flashy MTV music video. It's a harrowing glimpse at the hard-knock lives of young runaways, a mosaic of vignettes depicting squalor in the city. Occasionally leavened by ironic humor, it ...

Catch & Release

This production delivers a triple whammy of uninspired acting, unfocused and sloppy direction, and an unoriginal script. Playwright and star Rachel Brenna uses frequent flashbacks and a slow reveal of the story's major plot point, but neither technique transforms this into material worthy of more than a bad 1980s ...

EVERYBODY DIES

These five one-acts gently and comically remind us that one never knows which one is the last dance before the abyss. Let us pass quickly by the first piece, which features three ostriches that appear to be in danger of little more than being bitch-slapped by a cheetah (albeit to ...

Ghosts

Presented by the Brooklyn Academy of Music at the BAM Harvey Lichtenstein Theater, 651 Fulton St., Brooklyn, NYC, June 10-14.

Blue Balls: In & Out of Uniform with the NYPD

At the beginning of Michael Tester'sBlue Balls, the playwright-performer explains that he is both a descendant of a soldier who served under George Washington and the son of a professional clown.