chocolate

REVIEW:  Karin Trachtenberg’s ‘My Mother Had Two Faces’ examines the woman in the mirror

Posted on by The Sleepless Critic

They say beauty is only skin deep.

My Mother Had Two Faces explores beauty in all of its forms and how to accept the person in the mirror including the flaws on both the outside and on the inside.

Written by Karin Trachtenberg in a heartfelt performance and directed and developed by Jessica Lynn Johnson, The Rockwell presented the one woman self reflecting play, My Mother Had Two Faces:  Reflections on Beauty, Aging, and Acceptance live and in person at The Rockwell in Somerville, MA through Sunday, March 3, but this production is currently touring.  Karin will make her next stop at the United Solo Festival at Theatre Row on March 14 in New York City. The show is approximately 60 with no intermission.  Click here for more information and here for further details and for tickets.

Karin Trachtenberg in ‘My Mother Had Two Faces’ Photo credit to Karin Trachtenberg

The magnifying mirror is beauty’s classic frenemy.  It stands out on a vanity counter strewn with jewelry, makeup and all the items it takes for a person to enhance their best features.  The magnifying mirror enlarges all the remarkable parts of the face, but is also unrelenting and unforgiving for all the parts that glaringly need improvement. For Karin’s Swiss mother, it was a beacon of hope and an essential part of her daily routine that gave into an illusion that goes back generations that women must look perfect in today’s society.  As the show most poetically asks, ‘What does it mean to be seen by the envelope and not the letter?’ 

This revelatory production is not just about beauty, but it is a memoir about healing.  As a ritual for Karin’s Buddhist faith, it is a therapeutic journey into the past to get better insight into Karin’s struggles in order to achieve enlightenment.  My Mother Had Two Faces delves into important moments for Karin, her mother, and her family’s history while masking family trauma.

Karin and Lindt chocolate Photo credit to Karin Trachtenberg

Offering free Lindt chocolates as a tribute to Karin’s family heritage, My Mother Had Two Faces is an engaging, bare, honest, and sincere portrayal of the good, the beautiful and the horribly ugly with humor, joy, fear, grace, and anguish in the sting and string of life’s revelations.  Accompanied by slideshows, photos and much more shared through a multimedia screen by 3 Cubed, Karin shares some of her mother’s reflections in a thick and playful Swiss accent and an occasional lighthearted free spiritedness.  Dressed in black, Karin is a blank canvas for her mother and her own various idiosyncrasies, frustrations, hypocrisies, earnest dreams and more.  It is an eye opening journey accompanied only by the wise, sensible, and logical musings of the woman in the mirror exploring her most wonderful and toughest experiences.  Eric Bornstein’s expressive and finely-detailed masks are effective aides during the production with well timed lighting while sound and tech designer Bobby Raps rewinds the clock with a vintage soundtrack that includes the theme song to Mission Impossible and Edith Piaf’s Non je ne regrette rien (No regrets).

Karin Trachtenberg and Eric Bornstein’s masks Photo credit to Karin Trachtenberg

Karin paints a well rounded portrait of her enigmatic and glamorous mother and therefore making invaluable discoveries about herself and her family on this healing journey.  It is funny and moving and may encourage you to take a closer look in the mirror at what makes a person who they are.

Photo credit to Karin Trachtenberg

My Mother Had Two Faces:  Reflections on Beauty, Aging, and Acceptance will next be at the United Solo Festival at Theatre Row on March 14 in New York City. The show is approximately 60 with no intermission.  Click here for further details and for tickets.

REVIEW: Chocolate promises and shattered dreams as Arlekin Players turn over a bizarre ‘Stone’

Posted on by The Sleepless Critic

It is a show unlike anything the Sleepless Critic has ever seen before.  Arlekin Players is currently celebrating their 10th anniversary season as they present Marius von Mayenburg’s avant-garde production, ‘The Stone‘ (remount in English) through Sunday, September 29 in Needham, Massachusetts.  Click here for more information and tickets.    Click here for an interview done last year with director Igor Golyak.

Directed by Igor Golyak, ‘The Stone’ explores the history of a German house before and beyond World War II and its various owners which includes a Jewish family and their ancestors.  Quite a few revelations and family secrets are revealed through traumas and triumphs inside this haunting structure.

Arlekin Plays 'The Stone' with Viktoriya Kovalenko, Rimma Gluzman and Olga Sokolova

Viktoriya Kovalenko, Rimma Gluzman and Olga Sokolova in Arlekin Players ‘The Stone’ Photo courtesy of Irina Danilova/Arlekin Players

The Arlekin Players stage is an overwhelming experience told in the theatre round without a bad seat.  With vintage lighting by Jeff Adelberg,  ‘The Stone’ features very few props and unconventionally arranged set pieces which includes a partially buried piano, a vintage chandelier, and a chair hanging upside down from the ceiling.  As characters emerge and exit almost supernaturally from the floor in head-to toe-white with black paint splotches staining their pants, it quickly became clear that this would not be an orthodox production.

Arlekin Players 'The Stone'

Photo courtesy of Irina Danilova/Arlekin Players

With wild white hair, a pair of navigators called the conductors, portrayed with bizarre humor by Jenya Brodskaia and Misha Tyutyunik, are seemingly mad scientists that conduct and calculate time travel.  They take the audience through the history of the house before and beyond World War II, one of the most tumultuous times in history.  The time travel is a raging, jarring experience with special effects that may have been effective the first couple of times, but starts to distract from the tale as the show moves along.

The characters march strangely and unnaturally, sometimes under a plastic umbrella, an urgent tale with segments between the characters so brief, it is difficult to develop an attachment to them.  The cast is stoic for the most part, especially from Mieze, portrayed with a guarded, calculating air by Rimma Gluzman.  When Viktoriya Kovalenko as idealistic Heidrun discovers a small box in the house that she believes was her father’s, portrayed with complexity by David Gamarnik as Wolfgang, the moment Heidrun has with her mother Witha, portrayed by Darya Denisova, provides a touching moment in the production.

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I’m sure there is an audience for experimental theatre and the actual tale is powerful, but too unconventional and at times confusing for my taste.  It chooses to be different and complex when the story can be told in a straightforward way.  It is still art and it’s unforgettable.

Arlekin Players presents ‘The Stone’ through Sunday, September 29 at  368 Hillside Ave in Needham, Massachusetts.  Click here for more information and tickets and here for more information on the Igor Golyak Acting Studio.

After a night out, MET Bar and Grill presents the return of ‘Boston Hot Chocolate Experience’

Posted on by The Sleepless Critic

Sweeten the end of a concert or a night out at the theatre with rich chocolate.  Whether hot or cold, it is an undeniable treat throughout the year.  With the return of ‘Boston Hot Chocolate Experience’ starting Friday, November 25 and continuing through Valentine’s Day 2018 at three MET Bar and Grill locations in Massachusetts, chocolate has never tasted better.  Click here for more information.

Exclusively at MET Back Bay, customers can indulge in an interactive experience with Tableside Smores. They can toast extra-large marshmallows at their own table and add graham crackers, milk, white, or dark chocolate.  Hot chocolate options include Classic Hot Chocolate featuring vanilla chocolate, whipped cream, and mini-roasted marshmallows, Caramel Sea Salt with whipped cream and caramel drizzle, Espresso with Almond Biscotti, and White Chocolate Peppermint Hot Chocolate, featuring white chocolate, crushed peppermint stick, vanilla cream, and a candy cane.  Each treat can be enhanced with Peppermint Liquor, Caramel Vodka, Bailey’s, and more.

These holiday treats are presented as ‘A Flight of Four’ experience featuring four miniature glasses or attendees can order one flavor as ‘One Big One’ presentation.  Visit MET Back Bay in Boston and MET Bar and Grill in Dedham and Natick, Massachusetts.  MET offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as Saturday and Sunday Brunch. They also are available for private events and gift cards are available online for the perfect gift.