Prophecy
Opening Night: June 8, 2010
Closing: June 20, 2010
Theater: NY Theatre Workshop
Kathleen Chalfant, Peter Francis James, and George Bartenieff star in Karen Malpede’s play that’s both the story of a marriage and the personal legacy of the wars in Iraq and Vietnam and that centers on a group of people whose lives are surprisingly intertwined.
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June 11, 2010
When bad acting happens to good actors, it’s sometimes hard to know where to look. My attention kept straying to my shoes, to the back of the chair in front of me, to the tacky patio furniture of the set, in order to avoid having to watch Kathleen Chalfant and George Bartenieff flail their way through “Prophecy,” a long and ludicrous new play written and directed by Karen Malpede at the Fourth Street Theater in the East Village.
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June 11, 2010
An indefatigable five-person ensemble, including George Bartenieff, Kathleen Chalfant, and Peter Francis James, works valiantly to bring Karen Malpede’s Prophecy, running at the East Fourth Street Theater, to credible life. But not even the efforts of these A-list talents can elevate or enliven this overly artsy and badly written soap opera.
READ THE REVIEWJune 11, 2010
If good intentions made for good theater, "Prophecy" would be a master piece. Karen Malpede’s highly ambitious politically themed play incorporates, among other elements, the Old Testament story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar; the Greek tragedy "Antigone"; Middle East political tensions; and the devastating effects of not one but two wars, Iraq and Vietnam. Is it any wonder that you emerge exhausted?
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June 11, 2010
To paraphrase the above quote by Sarah Golden, the pivotal character in Karen Malpede’s Prophecy, "Sometimes, usually, in fact, I would say all the time, we are no better at writing anti-war plays than we are at preventing wars."
READ THE REVIEWJune 9, 2010
An indefatigable five-person ensemble, including George Bartenieff, Kathleen Chalfant, and Peter Francis James, works valiantly to bring Karen Malpede’s Prophecy, running at the East Fourth Street Theater, to credible life. But not even the efforts of these A-list talents can elevate or enliven this overly artsy and badly written soap opera.
READ THE REVIEWJune 18, 2010
To paraphrase the above quote by Sarah Golden, the pivotal character in Karen Malpede’s Prophecy, "Sometimes, usually, in fact, I would say all the time, we are no better at writing anti-war plays than we are at preventing wars." Typical of the genre known as agitprop theater, Prophecy, is built on a foundation of passionate belief. Instead of aiming for the sort of balanced take on opposite points of view, playwright and director Karen Malpede has given better than equal time to the emotional lives of her characters with war hardly a factor during more than half the play. But don’t let that fool you. There’s a reason this play is part of an anthology titled Acts of War: Iraq & Afghanistan in Seven Plays.
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June 9, 2010
If good intentions made for good theater, "Prophecy" would be a master piece. Karen Malpede’s highly ambitious politically themed play incorporates, among other elements, the Old Testament story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar; the Greek tragedy "Antigone"; Middle East political tensions; and the devastating effects of not one but two wars, Iraq and Vietnam. Is it any wonder that you emerge exhausted?
READ THE REVIEW
June 18, 2010
The damn Yankees aren’t the only baseball team with a musical-theater hex. The Boston Red Sox deal with their own fixed fate onstage — one with darker implications — in the cleverly crafted and terrifically performed new tuner "Johnny Baseball," receiving its first ups at Beantown’s (Cambridge, really) American Repertory Theater. Helmer Diane Paulus hits a clean line drive straight into center field with a thoughtful, crowd-pleasing and deftly balanced show that even a Yankee could love.
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