Party on, Pinter! ACT throws a <i>Birthday</i> bash
American Conservatory ..., Carey Perloff, Dan Hiatt, Harold Pinter, Marco Barricelli, plays, theater review, Theatermania-com American Conservatory ..., Carey Perloff, Dan Hiatt, Harold Pinter, Marco Barricelli, plays, theater review, Theatermania-com

Party on, Pinter! ACT throws a Birthday bash

There's a lot to love about American Conservatory Theater's The Birthday Party, a funny, slightly freaky Harold Pinter. The cast is uniformly strong, director Carey Perloff (essaying her last directorial effort as ACT's artistic director) deftly balances the unease and the humor. But for me, the joy, the electrical charge, the bright light of the production is ...

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American Conservatory ..., Eduardo De Filippo, local theater, Marco Barricelli, Mark Rucker, plays, Seana McKenna, theater review American Conservatory ..., Eduardo De Filippo, local theater, Marco Barricelli, Mark Rucker, plays, Seana McKenna, theater review

Greed not so good in ACT's Napoli!

Scuzza me, but you see back in old Napoli that's...

In the play Napoli!, it's not so much "amore" as it is "controlling the market." American Conservatory Theater's new translation of Eduardo De Filippo's 1945 play eschews the Italian title, Napoli milionaria!, in favor of translators Linda Alper and Beatrice Basso's choice, Napoli!. The exclamation point might suggest a musical (Hello, Mussolini!), but it's probably meant more ironically. Naples during World War II, especially before the allies arrived, was a pretty dismal, bombed-out, typhus-infested place with no shortage of shortages.

Neither a chest-beating drama nor an uproarious comedy, Napoli! resides in an in-between zone...

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