Thinking Theater NYC

The Good Soldier Švejk and His Fortunes in the First World War Adapted and directed by Vít Hořejš Based on the novel by Jaroslav Hašek Presented by Theater for the New City , produced in cooperation with GOH Productions , at Theater for the New City 155 First Ave., Manhattan, NYC February 1-18, 2024 Michelle Beshaw, Deborah Beshaw, Rocco George. Photo by Jonathan Slaff. Published between 1921 and 1923, Czech writer Jaroslav Hašek's unfinished, multivolume satirical novel The Good Soldier Švejk and His Fortunes in the World War , commonly shortened to The Good Soldier Švejk , holds the distinction of being the most translated novel in Czech literature and has had a cultural impact of which its probable Influence on Joseph Heller, author of seminal World War II satire Catch-22 (1961), and its definite influence on Bertolt Brecht, who wrote a sequel titled Schweyk in the Second World (1943), represent only two examples. Now, adding a sadly necessary modifier to the title, the Czec...

The Shylock and the Shakespeareans Written and directed by Edward Einhorn Presented by Untitled Theatre Company No. 61 at New Ohio Theatre  154 Christopher St., Manhattan, NYC (also available on demand) June 1-17, 2023  Jeremy Kareken and Yael Haskal. Photo by Richard Termine With the storied New Ohio Theatre slated for an August close, this summer, Untitled Theatre Company No. 61 (UTC61) takes to its stage to provide us with a pointed and timely look at the influence of theatre and the tropes therein on our own current cultural moment. The Shylock and the Shakespeareans is something like a retelling or reimagining of the Bard’s universally regarded and deeply problematic The Merchant of Venice . Writer and director Edward Einhorn updates the setting, while still keeping us deeply rooted in Shakespeare’s familiar climes. The action of the play undulates familiarly back and forth between the cosmopolitan world of Venice and gentile Belmont. Costumes blend the old and the new:...

The Machine Stops Adapted and directed by Kevin Ray Presented by KEVIN RAY | WORKS at the The Mark O'Donnell Theater at the Entertainment Community Fund Arts Center 160 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn, NYC January 27-February 5, 2023 L to R: Lya Lanne, Rachel Rhea Shannon, Augustus W. Cook II, & John Teresi. Photo by Jonathan Levin. English writer E. M. Forster's (1879-1970) 1909 dystopian science fiction story "The Machine Stops" includes much that now seems prescient, albeit necessarily and interestingly limited by its era: videoconferencing and music or literature at the push of a button make appearances, for instance, but that these or any other technologies could be wireless was clearly still unthinkable. The story may also strike audiences as having gained additional contemporary resonance in how its characters' physical isolation; disinclination to touch one another; and system of, as the narrative puts it, bringing things to people rather than people to thi...

Animal Farm Adapted by Brandon Walker Directed by Brandon Walker and Erin Cronican Presented by The Seeing Place at The Paradise Factory 64 E. 4th St., Manhattan, NYC February 13-23, 2020 Laura Clare Browne, Erin Cronican, Brandon Walker. Photo by Russ Rowland At a number of points in The Seeing Place's new adaptation of George Orwell's 1945 novella Animal Farm , if one didn't know better, one might assume that this was a play written specifically in response to America's current descent into authoritarianism. Unfortunate as those parallels are, they lend an additional queasy power to this production, which marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of Orwell's allegory of the Soviet slide into Stalinism. Part of The Seeing Place's "The Body Politic"-themed season, Animal Farm features a quartet of actors embodying 28 characters to intimately stage this story of how revolution turns into repression. The hallway leading to the thea...