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A Strong Season Grows Stronger

A theater season that has already been extraordinary for the number of interesting offerings continues this week with the opening of the first show of the season for Torn Space. Dan Shanahan continues his exploration of contemporary paranoia and technological alienation with Area, which he has both written and directed. For the occasion, his company, best known for occupying such unlikely theater spaces as the old Central Terminal, returns to the comfort of the Adam Mickiewicz Dramatic Circle on Fillmore. “This show utilizes live feed video along with pre-recorded images to confront two individuals on stage,” writes Shanahan, “casting them into a manipulated world of horror and deception. They are forced to grasp at memories of the past and situations of the present while their environment is confined to a clinical space, shaped by an outside technical force.”

The Boxcar Children finishes its run at TOY this weekend

This week, the Irish Classical Theatre Company returns to small town Ireland with The Cavalcaders by Billy Roche. Under the direction of Derek Campbell, the play explores the ways in which the course of history both changes direction and repeats. In this apparent variation of Saturday Night Fever, four shoe repairmen spend their nights as barbershop singers—though the happy harmonies of the music are not an accurate reflection of their lives.

Meanwhile, Ujima’s enchanting musical retelling of the Adam and Eve story, In de Beginnin’, continues at TheaterLoft. With music by Oscar Brown Junior, Beverly Dove’s recreation of her legendary performance as “de Lawd” (a role she has played twice before), Philip Knoerzer turning in what is arguably his best performance ever as the “Debil,” and a bevy of appealing new talent as well, In de Beginnin’ is one of those proverbial “must see” shows. In fact, if you’ve seen it before, it might be time to see it again. It is good to have Ujima back after a long hiatus. Let’s hope they can maintain the momentum.

This weekend is the final weekend for The Boxcar Children by Barbara Field, adapted from the novels by Gertrude Chandler Warner, about a group of Depression era orphans who forge out on their own for a variety of adventures while living in a boxcar. Theater of Youth always lavishes talent on its productions. This time, in addition to the usual design crew, audiences can enjoy Arlene Clement, Tim Newell, Bill Schmidt, Linda Stein, and others.

The Alleyway Theatre is hosting two companies in the final weekend of memorable theatrical outings. At long last, John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt is playing Buffalo, presented by Buffalo United Artists in a production directed by Javier Bustillos with Lisa Ludwig as Sister Aloysius. The insightful, perceptive, but remarkably rigid nun suspects a priest, played by Louis Colaiacovo of making improper advances on a 12-year-old boy a the school. Told as a “parable,” the play never yields easy answers, and a strong cast, in this taut and economical 80-minute production, confidently slices through the drama. Ludwig and Colaiacovo are impressive as the confrontational nun and priest and their final showdown, a model of actorly control is memorable. Katie White plays Sister James, the younger sister who just wants life to be free of complication. Arianna Boykins plays the mother of the child in question. The question of “did he or didn’t he” becomes almost secondary in a play that confronts the way events can lead us to doubt our most cherished values and beliefs.

Also in its final weekend, Victoria Perez is giving a tour de fource performance in No Child, a one-woman show by Nilaja Sun about a visiting teaching artist in a rough New York City middle school. Presented by Theatre Plus in the tiny stage of Alleyway’s cabaret space, under the direction of Kim Piazza, Perez plays all the teachers, all the students, and even the school custodian with remarkable dexterity, clarity, and aplomb.