Stephen Thorne

Latest Articles

Trinity’s delicately balanced Merchant of Venice

The light and the dark
The Merchant of Venice gives modern audiences a lot to think and talk about — including, we can forget, a surprising amount of comedy. But the main concern is it being such a head-shaking case study of the era's anti-Semitism.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | February 15, 2012

Trinity Rep’s rip-roaring His Girl Friday

The write stuff
There are theatrical adaptations and then there are magnificent transformations, like His Girl Friday . Multiple-Obie Award-winning playwright John Guare has expanded the furious screwball comedy into a historical/social commentary without our losing out on the knee-slapping.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 21, 2011

Review: Poe vs. Poe in Trinity's Strange Tale

I Is Another
What's left to spook us these days? Crime shows display forensic detail that has inured us to blood.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 18, 2011

Review: Trinity Rep’s Crucible is potent

Hidden agendas
The Crucible is a profoundly moving story, especially when inhabited by the talents at Trinity Repertory Company. This is the third time the group has taken on Arthur Miller's masterwork of American theater, the last a quarter-century ago.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | February 17, 2011

Review: Trinity Rep's magical Camelot

An enchanted evening
Camelot is a hard musical not to like, even for those who don’t like to like musicals.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | September 22, 2010

Play by Play: March 5, 2010

Theater listings, March 5, 2010
Boston's weekly theater listings
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 03, 2010

Play by play, February 26, 2010

Theater listings, week of February 26, 2010
Boston's weekly theater listings
By JEFFREY GANTZ | February 24, 2010

Play by play: February 19, 2010

Theatre listings, week of February 19, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | February 17, 2010

Play by play: February 12, 2010

Theater listings, February 12, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | February 09, 2010

Present laughter

Trinity throws a Twelfth Night party
Director Brian McEleney returns to Trinity Repertory Company for a raucous Twelfth Night that hums with energy, drollery, and a makeshift score that meshes Shakespearean ditty with such seasonal fripperies as "Auld Lang Syne" and the Mariah Carey hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You."
By CAROLYN CLAY | February 10, 2010

Play by play: February 5, 2010

Plays from A to Z
Boston's weekly theater listings
By JEFFREY GANTZ | February 03, 2010

Play by Play: January 29, 2010

Theater listings, January 29, 2010
Boston's weekly theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | January 27, 2010

Lady of the Sea

If all you know of the Aran Islands is the plays of Martin McDonagh, you probably think their populace is an untamed and violent lot.
If all you know of the Aran Islands is the plays of Martin McDonagh, you probably think their populace is an untamed and violent lot.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 13, 2009

Odd couples

The Lyric's Grey Gardens; Trinity's Shapeshifter
The East Hampton Board of Health would doubtless approve Grey Gardens: The Musical , since it comes minus the crapping cats, feral raccoons, and piles of garbage that form the supporting cast and unsanitary milieu of the famed documentary on which it's based.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 12, 2009

Material girls

Trinity uncovers Hare's Secret Rapture
The usually evenhanded if impassioned David Hare in The Secret Rapture , a 20-year-old play being urgently, elegiacally revived by Trinity Repertory Company.
By CAROLYN CLAY | March 10, 2009

Fightin' words

Trinity Rep’s thoroughly modern Dreams of Antigone
The trouble with Greek tragedies is that they tend to be Greek to us.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | October 02, 2008

Cry me a river

The Dreams of Antigone; In the Continuum; Show Boat
It would seem that Sophocles has been hanging around for 2500 years waiting to be improved — and the makeover artists have been numerous.
By CAROLYN CLAY | October 01, 2008

Just another Night

The songs are the draw in Trinity’s Paris
Paris by Night , the musical play — as opposed to a straight musical, if you’ll pardon the expression — is a pleasant enough excursion.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | May 07, 2008

Learning curves

SpeakEasy’s The History Boys; Trinity’s Paris by Night
From Mr. Chips to Miss Jean Brodie, charismatic teachers have been the stuff of drama.
By CAROLYN CLAY | May 08, 2008

Love stories

Columbus gets to the heart of Paris by Night
“Maybe straight America — or American musical theater — is not ready for it yet. But the music rocks.”
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 30, 2008

Both sides now

The ugly beauty of Some Things Are Private
The actors were shown a number of photographs by Sally Mann and asked to decide which of them they found the most beautiful and which the most disturbing.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | February 20, 2008

A stellar Scrooge

Trinity’s Christmas Carol sets a new standard
Yes, this Christmas Carol sets a new standard for Trinity. Don’t miss it.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 09, 2007

September songs

Invincible Summer ; The Fantasticks ; I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda
“Try to remember the kind of September/When life was slow and oh, so mellow,” sings El Gallo at the top of The Fantasticks .
By CAROLYN CLAY | April 10, 2007

Ah, youth!

Trinity Rep’s spirited The Fantasticks
This imaginative and flawlessly performed staging of The Fantasticks sets off every spark in this fireworks celebration of youth.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 10, 2007

A universal tale

Trinity breathes new life into The Fantasticks
Success has earned The Fantasticks a bad rap.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | March 27, 2007

Best on the boards

Certainly Nicholas Martin will leave the Huntington a livelier place than when he took over.
Huntington Theatre Company artistic director Nicholas Martin recently announced that he would leave his post in 2008.
By CAROLYN CLAY | February 20, 2007

Life’s enchanted cup

Our Town at Trinity; BTW’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The buzz about Trinity Repertory Company’s Our Town has centered on its double-barreled depiction of community.
By CAROLYN CLAY | February 07, 2007

Best on the boards

A year in theater
Huntington Theatre Company artistic director Nicholas Martin recently announced that he would leave his post in 2008.
By CAROLYN CLAY | December 19, 2006

Dying breeds

The Cherry Orchard , The Women , Summer and Smoke
Chekhov insisted that his final masterpiece, The Cherry Orchard , was a comedy and fumed at Stanislavsky’s having his characters suffer through their fraying existences at the pace of a Robert Wilson opus.
By CAROLYN CLAY | September 27, 2006

Fighting words

Is Trinity Rep’s Boots On the Ground too balanced?
Sometimes the easiest way to offend is to avoid being offensive.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 26, 2006