Word: derrah
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...play—which runs through March 15 at the Loeb Drama Center—produce a near-perfect experience of Beckett’s absurdist drama about nothing and everything. Will LeBow is Hamm, the blind leader of his twisted little family, which includes his servant Clov (Thomas Derrah) and immobile parents, Nagg (Remo Airaldi) and Nell (Karen MacDonald), who live in ashbins. Unable to move from his wheelchair, Hamm is at once in command of this bizarre family unit and yet powerless to fully control his own self. What ensues is the daily, almost ritualistic routine of these...
...crews capturing the play’s most violent moments. The tone is surprisingly light considering the crimes that the dictators are being charged with: genocide and the destruction of the nation’s economy. Yet this helps to emphasize the disconnect between the realities of Nicolae (Thomas Derrah) and Elena (Karen MacDonald) and those of their people. Elena believes that she is a world-renowned scientist, although she only attended school through the fourth grade. Nicolae spends enormous amounts of the country’s budget on tributes to himself. Vlad Tepes (performed on Friday night by understudy...
...audience—but with empty chairs. During the play’s famous funeral oratory, no actors are on stage except for Antony, Brutus, and Lucius, effectively making the audience play the part of the Roman citizens. The production is highlighted by some solid acting. Thomas Derrah, a dramatic arts lecturer at Harvard, nails the confident and fearless Caesar, who is devastated when betrayed by his close friend Brutus. Sara Kathryn Bakker shines brightly with a convincing Portia, blending the character’s tender devotion with her strong will as she attempts to get Brutus...
Most of the company is similarly blameless, but that doesn’t make them interesting to watch. Karen McDonald gets a few laughs as an uptight, dim-witted gym teacher. Thomas Derrah is more entertaining as a motivational speaker, but is never on stage long enough to exude anything other than superficial sliminess. Sarah Jorge Leon, as one of Donnie’s teachers, is the only performer who actively wastes her own stage time, sounding immature in scenes where she should be speaking as the voice of reason...
...could as easily be seen giving such angst ridden speeches wearing black eyeliner and hanging out at the local mall in modern times. The secondary characters are played to the hilt as well. Lady Capulet (Elizabeth Hess) is now an over-sexed, half-crazed shrieking harpy, Friar Laurence (Thomas Derrah) is physically menacing and the prince (John Campion) has an inexplicable (and annoying) stutter. As for Mercutio—well it is rather impossible to overplay Mercutio—Che Ayende delivers the rants and innuendos in great style. The costumes continue the Gothic flamboyance of the characterizations. They look...