Although there is peril in describing the current attention devoted to English novelist Jane Austen as a mania, that seems like an almost unavoidable conclusion. From the popularity of Jane Austen Regency Balls, Jane Austen Festivals in the UK and the U.S., not to mention a plethora of film and television projects in addition to the literature itself, the author’s fanbase is arguably second only to The Bard in the 21st Century. The fact that 2025 is the 250th anniversary of Ms. Austen’s birth has only added fuel to the fire of that attention.
Review: CBT’s ‘Failure: A Love Story’ — Whimsical and Wise
BY ALAN SHERROD Equal parts existentialism and comically whimsical narrative, Philip Dawkins’ Failure: A Love Story, which opened last week in the Clarence Brown Theatre’s Lab Theatre, is a feast of storytelling that barely hides its comically abstract premise…
Review: CBT’s ‘Exit, Pursued By A Bear’ Is Sweet Revenge
By Alan Sherrod How does a work of theatre confront the issue of domestic abuse but at the same time walk the fine line between painful tragedy and unseemly comedy? For playwright Lauren Gunderson, the solution was to construct…
Review: Nora – And An Intriguing Debate – Returns in ‘A Doll’s House, Part 2’
By Alan Sherrod As the lights come up on Lucas Hnath’s A Doll’s House, Part 2, looming ominously upstage center is the infamous front door of Torvald Helmer’s house, the door through which Nora Helmer passed on her way…
Review: CBT’s ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ – An Ensemble Tour de Force
There is no greater example in literature of the boundlessness of childhood imagination than the story of Peter Pan. Created in a number of vehicles by J.M. Barrie including his 1904 play, Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow…