Black Watch (Gregory Burke)

From its first appearance in the states in 2006, we had read and heard terrific reports of Black Watch but hadn't managed to get tickets during its initial foray to the states. In 2008, we stood in line for a couple of hours in London trying to get tickets to a performance there, but gave up when it became clear that out chances of getting tickets to the sold out performance were null. We knew the Scottish National Theatre was coming back to the states this year, but for the longest time the website didn't mention any stops in the NYC or Boston areas. Because we contemplated traveling to Chicago or Washington DC for a performance, we were delighted to discover that SNT would return to St. Ann's Warehouse in Dumbo Brooklyn.

Perhaps four years is too long to see a play. The anticipation builds, and expectations exceed anything a production could meet. We were very disappointed. The dialogue was very difficult to follow, and the narrative seemed, well, if not trite, then at least predictable.

I've linked Ben Brantley's most recent review. I wish I'd like it as much as he did. And I recommend it because so many other recommended it to me.

Recommended. With my own personal caveats.

Brief Encounter, Emma Rice adaptation of Noel Coward

St. Ann's Warehouse is quickly becoming a favorite venue for innovative theatre. And the production brought in by Kneehigh Theatre (a Cornish theatrical group) re-enforces this bias.

Brief Encounter is a multi-media production adapted from both Noel Coward's 1930s play Still Life and the later film version Brief Encounter. Effectively using actors playing double roles, the production switches between theatre and film--and blurring the boundaries between each by letting the conventions of each penetrate into the other--to create a moving mediation on forbidden desire.

Highly recommended.