Rachel E. Diken

mm

Rachel E. Diken is a writer and editor whose work has been featured in HowlRound and a production of The American Poetry Theater, among others. She writes a monthly theatre column at The Atticus Review and a daily haiku via Twitter @haikuavenue. Visit www.rachelediken.com for projects and events.

Posts by Rachel E. Diken

    Theater Review: Helluva Theatre Takes on Major Barbara

    Helluva Theatre Company — newly formed under the mission to produce plays from the traditional canon that aren’t often seen, and in effect offering actors a spectrum of style beyond contemporary popularity — has ambitiously chosen George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara as its inaugural production. The dialogue-heavy, two-and-a-half-hour play set in 1906 was resurrected by Helluva Theatre in part for its parallels to our current societal conversation concerning the relationship between wealth and power (and the complex dilemmas of morality therein). One hundred years later, the force of Shaw’s language accomplishes the desired impact.

    Read More

    Black & Blue by Kevin Demoan Edwards: A Theater Review

    Black & Blue, the first full-length play by writer/producer Kevin Demoan Edwards, takes on the charged dynamics of the Black Lives Matter movement and its rejoinder, the Blue Lives Matter movement. Through the portrayal of two couples on respective sides of the matter (supported by a shifting-identitied ensemble), Edwards goes beyond giving voice and face to the movements’ tangential perspectives and sits us front-row to a series of their combustive interactions. In a quickly-flowing sequence of plot advances, we witness the characters struggling with the feelings informed by their reality, while steadily conflicted as each conversation initiates a layer of compassion for their supposed opposition.

    Read More
    • 1
    • 2