The Rating System NNNNN Standing ovation NNNN Sustained applause NNN Recommended, memorable scenes NN Seriously flawed N Get out the hook = Critics'' pick (highly recommended)

reviewed: PINOCCHIO, POND LIFE, and UBU THE KING - July 02, 2004

PINOCCHIO

Stewart Matthews and Justin Sage-Passant transform the children’s story into an after-lights-out, often-rhyming, contemporary adult fairy tale told by two boys in PJs. Using little but their voices, bodies and a cuddly teddy as the wooden boy, they create a dozen clever characterizations and provide some surprising, serious and upsetting plot turns.
Rating: NNNN (JK)

POND LIFE

Two couples at a dinner party, friends since high school, go at social conventions and each other in writer/director Gordon Rand’s often wicked, darkly nasty script. The script starts to fade near the end, but the expert ensemble, who attack the farce in a ferociously dedicated manner, never drops the ball.
Rating: NNNN (JK)

UBU THE KING

This absurdist French classic about a cowardly man pushed by his wife to take over the throne -- writer Alfred Jarry works in echoes of Macbeth and Hamlet ­-- gets a disappointing presentation, with a performance technique that feels amateurish and key actors who still don’t know their lines.
Rating: NN (JK)