BLUE HILL — When I was a kid, we used to have an antique, wind-up gramophone with a small collection of vintage 78 records from the 1940s. The hands-down favorite for me and my siblings was a record called “Ticklish Reuben,” which was largely a recording of the singer laughing (because he was ticklish, see?). …
BLUE HILL — At first nothing much seems to happen in Roxana Robinson’s new book, “Dawson’s Fall” (Sarah Crichton Books, 2019 327 pages.) We are flies on the wall in the household of a young man in London — the future Confederate soldier and newspaper editor Frank Dawson, as he decides to leave his home …
DEER ISLE — After more than 30 years writing art stories, previews and reviews of shows in theaters, barns and school gyms, I am rarely surprised by something new under the theatrical sun. But once in a great while something completely unexpected happens. Last Friday was a case in point. I was assigned to go …
MOUNT DESERT — Ever since the ancient Greeks first donned the masks of tragedy and comedy, farce has been a staple of comedic theater. It has always involved ridiculous plots, mistaken identities and unbelievably clueless characters. In most modern farces, it also involves doors — the more doors the funnier the farce. Well, Acadia Repertory …
BLUE HILL — One would like to think that the story of Anne Frank has no relevance today. That teenage girls and their families are no longer being persecuted and murdered by forces beyond their control and beyond human compassion. The sad fact is such horrors continue to happen throughout the world. But who wants …
BROOKSVILLE — The outer limit of my theatrical travels has just expanded by 25 miles or so. Saturday night I passed through Blue Hill and my usual stop at the Town Hall Theater. I continued west along Route 176, which consisted largely of narrow, bumpy country roads, passing through the towns of Penobscot and Sedgwick …
BLUE HILL — The success of a play such as “Dear Elizabeth,” which opened at the Town Hall Theater last weekend, rests almost entirely on the shoulders of the two actors who play Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. Based entirely on the 30-year written correspondence of these two poets, there is very little physical action, …
BLUE HILL — Epistolary plays, such as “Dear Elizabeth” opening this Friday, June 7, at the Town Hall Theater, have their own challenges and their own rewards. Because the action, dialogue and emotion are all revealed in letters — in this case a correspondence between two people — one can feel anchored to the stationary, …
WINTER HARBOR — The last two times I’ve seen what I think is Neil Simon’s most hilarious and heartwarming play, “Lost in Yonkers,” both productions were directed by Bill Raiten of New Surry Theatre. Raiten pretty much lived the story as the child of Jewish immigrants growing up during the ’40s and ’50s in Brooklyn …
BAR HARBOR — Bill Carpenter leans into a question a student has asked in his history class at College of the Atlantic. Perhaps it’s to hear better — he is after all pushing 80 — but the creative writing gives the impression of being fully engaged by the query. He leans back in his chair, …
BLUE HILL — They may be little, but they are mighty. That is an apt description of the women in the Louisa May Alcott story about the March sisters. Mighty also is a good adjective for the women who play those roles in New Surry Theatre’s production of “Little Women,” which opened last weekend at …
ELLSWORTH — The Grand’s production of “The Wizard of Oz,” which opened last weekend, has put the fine old theater back on track of presenting excellently cast, produced, directed and performed musicals. While there have been elements of all these qualities in recent past productions, it has been a while since they all have come …
