Bess Hochstein – Splash Magazines

Review: B.R.O.K.E.N code B.I.R.D switching debuts in the Berkshires

June 30, 2022 Bess Hochstein 0

Let’s start with the title. B.R.O.K.E.N code B.I.R.D switching, a two-act play by Tara L. Wilson Noth having its world premiere run at Berkshire Theatre Group in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, is a mash-up of two phrases. […]

[email protected] – Jane Austen’s classic Regency romance, annotated by the Interwebs

June 26, 2022 Bess Hochstein 0

The writer Jane Austen never published a novel in her name during her lifetime; having a writing career was considered inappropriate for a woman of her standing. In addition, the way she skewered the social […]

Review: An Iliad at Shakespeare & Company brings Homer’s epic poem home

June 18, 2022 Bess Hochstein 0

An Iliad, the acclaimed play by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare based on Homer’s Iliad, remains, for several reasons, an oft-produced favorite of theater companies more than ten years after its premiere. First: It requires […]

Review: Andy Warhol in Iran at Barrington Stage Company

June 13, 2022 Bess Hochstein 0

As preparation for seeing the world premiere of Andy Warhol in Iran, commissioned and presented by Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, I watched a few episodes of Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix documentary series, The […]

Shakespeare & Company’s production of “hang” by debbie tucker green

September 27, 2021 Bess Hochstein 0

What’s the difference between justice and vengeance? In debbie tucker green’s searing one-act hang, the two hang in the balance, as a woman who has been severely wronged is asked to determine the fate of […]

Review: Tiny Beautiful Things, produced by Chester Theatre Company

August 27, 2021 Bess Hochstein 0

The small but superb Chester Theatre Company ends its summer residency at Hancock Shaker Village on a high note with a soothing, heartfelt production of Tiny Beautiful Things, an epistolary play by Nia Vardalos, adapted […]

Review: Sister Sorry world premiere at Barrington Stage Company

August 23, 2021 Bess Hochstein 0

Back in 1993, New Yorker writer Alec Wilkinson penned a long-form piece of nonfiction, “The Confession,” about a conceptual artist who opened a telephone line for people wanting to apologize for any wrongs they had […]

Review: At Shakespeare & Company, Yamina Reza’s Art paints a portrait of male friendship

August 19, 2021 Bess Hochstein 0

In the 27 years since its debut, Yasmina Reza’s arch play Art has racked up awards on formidable stages across the world. Its premiere production in 1994, at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées in Paris, earned […]

Review: Playwright Mark St. Germain brings Eleanor Roosevelt back to life

July 27, 2021 Bess Hochstein 0

When Harriet Harris enters as Eleanor Roosevelt in Mark St. Germain’s new play Eleanor, she seems small, especially in the looming darkness of Barrington Stage Company’s Boyd-Quinson Stage. Part of that impression could be that […]

Review: Chester Theatre Company’s searing production of The Niceties

July 20, 2021 Bess Hochstein 0

You’d be hard-pressed to imagine a play more timely than The Niceties, an explosive two-hander in which an accomplished white history professor and an activist black student at an elite East Coast university square off […]