Alan saw Psalms of a Questionable Nature and said:
If anyone truly wants to see some spectacular theater in this city while also supporting a budding theater group with enormous potential, I highly recommend you find your way Studio 5 at the Walnut Street Theater and see "Psalms of A Questionable Nature". Brilliantly acted, directed, written, and with a stunning set that transforms this small space into a dark, mysterious country-house basement where family secrets are buried and exposed, "Psalms" is a powerful, mesmerizing, and often frightening commentary on our society of fear and disillusionment. It is dark, to be sure, but not overly so, as the melancholia is perfectly interspersed with moments of unassumingly humorous dialogue delivered with impeccable timing and authenticity. Both actors shine here as they portray what could be two very extreme characterizations with nuanced grace and subtlety that anchor their personas in reality. The Nice People Theatre Company has a short, but noteworthy and superior list of productions so far, and "Psalms" is no exception. Do yourself a favor and see this one before you miss your opportunity. I can smell the Barrymore nominations from here. |
Anonymous saw Psalms of a Questionable Nature and said:
Although I wished the play actually went somewhere a little further, and that it revealed a little more about what the father was doing and how much the mother was complicit, I wasn't dissatisfied with it in any way. This is a play that challenge audiences. It is written by a writer with real talent. The writing is good enough, catchy enough, weird enough, to feel like there is a real observant and poetic mind at work behind these characters, and the things that are just "quirky" -- a word I am coming to hate for its all-purpose positive and negative use -- are purposeful. This more of a mother/daughter play than a sibling play. The estrangements these two engage over has to do with parenting or the lack there-of, one's inability to do it and need for it, the other's lack of having had it and need for it. All of the interactions between them have some aspect of parent and child to them. The play would have been a lot flatter, I think, if the director had grounded it in their actual relationship as the driving one. I don't think the playwright is being cagey when she has Janice's character ask half way through why she didn't feel maternal when her damaged child was born. Nor do I think she is being anything but direct when we see a love-lost child essentially destroy herself for the lack of loving parenting, having first tried to prove her love for her distracted parents by doing the most heinous thing she can to serve their wishes -- an act of self-proof as sad and deep as any I remember hearing described on stage in a long while. In some ways we are watching two versions of the same story being enacted on stage, or two ends of a continuous loop. While I think the play asks a lot, and I think there are things that don't entirely work -- the bloody dying at the end is more literal than it needs to be -- its strengths outweigh its weaknesses. The women were riveting, and they were riviting not just because the performances were terrific and the direction likewise but because they writing was compelling. Joffred is truly amazing. I have not seen a performance from a young actor that was that good since I saw Maggie Siff's early work at InterAct and the Wilma over ten years ago, or Marin Ireland's work as a young actress in the same time frame.
And let me say something about NPTC. This is an announcement play, and you did well to choose it. Love it or hate it, your audience will get it that you are going to take them to places that are fascinating and hard, and as long as you do it as well as you have done this, they will ride with you and the audience will grow. The fact that the play was so well done trumps the problems with the play for me completely, especially in terms of what it says about you as a company, your willingness to risk, your desire to be out on the edge. Your director made sense of what could have been very rugged terrain, and I stayed in my seat for the bumpy but fascinating ride. So did the rest of the audience. Hard theater doesn't chase people away. Hard theater done badly or predictably does. You guys are to be taken seriously.
You are the future I want to bet on. I think your decision to produce Psalms was the right kind of bravery, and I think the people you hired to do it brought the kind of talent you needed to the enterprise. I remember the early days of the Wilma, and this is exactly the kind of play that would have been interesting to them. There is no one on the landscape doing work like that (like this) now, and you could be that company. Let your audience catch up with your vision. They will invest in it, and they will stay in your corner.
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Karen Lotman saw Have a Nice Life (Remount) on September 7, 2008 and said:
I thought the production and cast were absolutely delightful.
I think you have a very talented group, and I believe your future productions will be very entertaining as well!!!
Herb and I were very glad that we braved the hurricane and came to see you all
we both wish you a Great Future!!
Nicole is the one that made us aware of your work, and i was very proud to have you perform at the Prince Music Theater, since I am board member of long standing, and we do our best to show the best!!
You did!!!
Congratulations!!!!!
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Jim Gardner saw Six Seconds in Charlack and said:
Last night, in the intimate Shubin Theatre, I had the rare privilege last night of witnessing the birth of an edgy and enormously talented theatre company performing a brilliantly written (and utterly powerful) play called Six Seconds in Charlack, in which writing itself serves as a deus ex machina. (And you'll learn a lot about antique typewriters!) Until now, I have never used this space to recommend a book or movie or live performance. I am making an exception because an intrepid theatre troupe that can deliver an exceptional (and complete) theatrical experience on a shoestring in a shoebox theatre deserves the support of discriminating lovers of theater and literature. I can well envision the Nice People Theatre Company breaking new ground and becoming a performing arts force in Philadelphia. Below are the details. The production runs today and through next weekend. Trust me: you'll be thinking and talking about this play for hours and days afterward.
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