The How and the Why
Opening Night: January 7, 2011
Closing: February 13, 2011
Theater: McCarter Theater Center
Evolution and emotion collide in Sarah Treem’s thought-provoking and sharp new play about science, family, and survival of the fittest. On the eve of a prestigious conference, an up-and-coming evolutionary biologist wrestles for the truth with an established leader in the field. This intimate and keenly perceptive play explores the difficult choices women of every generation face.
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January 18, 2011
Biology is destiny, and destiny is biology — specifically evolutionary biology — in “The How and the Why,” a new play by Sarah Treem having its premiere at the McCarter Theater Center here. A contentious, knottily plotted drama about the challenges women face in negotiating careers in the academic sciences, the play provides a nice showcase for Mercedes Ruehl, who gives a lively, nuanced and crisply funny performance as a professor whose long history of distinguished research comes under fire from an unlikely quarter.
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January 19, 2011
There were two good reasons that made me look forward to the world premiere of a new play by Sarah Treem. First, I was impressed by the first play, A Feminine Ending when it was presented by Playwrights Horizons in 2007. Embracing an incontrovertible feminist theme, it followed the course of a young woman who, as she follows a career path as a classically trained musician, finds her life irreparably consigned to compromise.
READ THE REVIEWJanuary 15, 2011
"The How and the Why," is a fascinating, very intelligent new two-character play by Sarah Treem. This world premiere production opened officially last night for a run through Feb. 13 at McCarter’s Berlind Theatre.
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January 18, 2011
Sarah Treem’s two-hander The How and the Why, now premiering at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, often feels like a dialectic in dramatic form rather than a drama about people with conflicting ideas. The question Treem seems to want to pose, in various guises, is the old question: "Can a woman have it all?" Unfortunately, it is not very convincingly dramatized.
READ THE REVIEWJanuary 18, 2011
The McCarter Theater’s most recent debut of a new play is no lightweight offering. It’s an exhilarating, intellectual evening out, brought to you courtesy of four talented women.
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