37th Marathon of One-Act Plays: Series C

See it if If you want 5 one act plays. Two are good, three are fair at best. Some good acting and direction but not a great evening.

Don't see it if If you dont want various one acts that have different topics and subjects. A musical suits you better.

See it if you would like to see what a cross-section of young playwrights is up to.

Don't see it if you’re looking for the kind of resolution that can only come with a long play.

Also I pay tribute to Ensemble Studio Theatre’s commitment to new playwrights & the short form in my review of Series B, right after this 1. Here I engage the “37th Marathon of One-Act Plays: Series C.” All 5 shows on the program are worth seeing, & together are a kind of barometer for what young playwrights are thinking & doing 3 years into the current corrosion of democracy we’re enduring in the US. I’ll focus on 1 play, “I believe in a republic in which money has a great deal to say.” A graduate of the EST brunch program, this play is even more powerful in this full staging, as savage a farce as I’ve seen in the Trump era, Swiftian in its rage & its control. That it’s set in Robber Baron America instead of today, & among the wives instead of the captains of industry, only makes its savagery more shocking & effective as a comment on a society in which the accumulators of great wealth are free to ride roughshod over the rest of us. Sound familiar? Watch & weep—but laugh out loud too!... Read more Read less

See it if you are a fan of the one-act play. Unfortunately, Series C has the weakest plays, making the evening less than satisfying.

Don't see it if you don't like one-act plays or do not want to sit through an evening made up of 5 unfinished works. This part is very disappointing.

See it if Series C has some strong moments but there's not really one stand-out play. Kate Atwell's Jesus in Manhattan is the most ambitious and

Don't see it if interesting, but at times feels like a Caryl Churchill mash-up or homage and likely needs more drafts to get it to a place where the

Also playwright's own voice and also some clarity emerge. But it is powerful. Lloyd Suh's Mandarin Duck is charming, sad, and frustrating, hinting at something mysterious that doesn't materialize. i believe in a republic is entertaining and theatrical but, for all its satirical hijinks, should have been sharper. The Tourists is entertaining and uncomfortable in equal parts, with fine performances but doesn't seem to know where it wants to go and ends up in a sentimental, yet sort of satisfying, heap. Fall is also a sentimental play, or call it "moving," if this is your cup of tea. Well-calibrated performances and controlled direction in a play about a mother with dementia, her daughter, and a caregiver. It seems churlish to say anything negative about such a worthy enterprise, and the daughter has a strong although expedited arc, but I do get a bit weary with the aging parent/Alzheimers/caregiver set-up. The title and its use in the play provides a nice homonymic/metaphoric resonance.... Read more Read less