Tag Archives: slavery

Stage Names: Portland Stage’s “Ben Butler” brings reflection and rare laughs to the Civil War

PORTLAND – It’s not often a play in a professional theatrical setting gets an immediate standing ovation before the lights are fully dimmed at final curtain. It’s also virtually unheard of for any kind of work – creative or historical –  dealing with slavery and the Civil War to receive a healthy dose of laughs […]

Stage Names: Portland Stage tackles race and more in ‘The Niceties’

PORTLAND – When I was a young boy, I used to spend my summers in a remote Greek farming village, helping my great aunt Nike harvest acres of vegetable crops and groves of olive trees. At night, exhausted, I slept under the stars on a blanket-covered flat stand on her front porch. During my first […]

Stage Names: “Whipping” up race, religion and the Civil War at Portland Stage

PORTLAND – The beauty of reviewing the same play two years apart in another state performed by a different Equity company is how the one work can be, well, different — even if its earlier version mirrors it. And so with the 150th anniversary of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse just weeks away, our ongoing American reflection of race, culture, religion, and war can […]