Gloucester Stage Company | The Sleepless Critic

REVIEW: The wild pursuit of love and meaning in Gloucester’s Stage’s world premiere of ‘Dalloway: First Love’

Posted on August 27 by The Sleepless Critic

Who knew a sprawling tree would hold such meaning?

In the far off 1890 English countryside, Clarissa, deep in thought, is anticipating her 18^th birthday cradled in a symbolic tree torn between coming of age and missing her late older sister. Like many literary heroines, she does not want to grow up or for her world to change as certain arrangements are being made behind the scenes as she longs to become a writer.

Fueled by Rebecca Bradshaw’s prognosticative direction, Gloucester Stage Company continues the world `premiere of Lindsay Joelle’s romantic dramedy, Dalloway: First Love live and in person at Gloucester Stage in Gloucester, Massachusetts through Saturday, August 29. Playwright Lindsay Joelle introduces this coming-of-age story-within-a-story production which runs approximately two hours with an intermission. Click here for more information and for tickets.

Gloucester Stage Company’s world premiere production of “Dalloway”, written by Lindsay Joelle and directed by Rebecca Bradshaw. The play stars Josephine Moshiri Elwood as Clarisa Parry, Haley Dyana Schwartz as Sally Seton, Shobhit Piasa as Peter Walsh, and Jesse Garlick as The Slew. The production runs August 13 to August 29 at the Natti-Willsky Performance Center, 267 East Main Street in Gloucester, MA.

© 2026 Shawn G. Henry • 978-590-4869

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Dalloway First Love stands as a prequel to Virginia Wolff’s famous novel, Mrs. Dalloway and is also a somewhat modern take on a period piece. I have not read Virginia Wolff’s work, but it does not seem necessary to read it in order to understand or appreciate this production.

With subtle winks to the future of women, Dalloway First Love has one foot inside the world of 1890 and the other exploring women’s contemporary accomplishments. As several suitors compete for Clarissa’s affections, Elwood’s Clarissa, while open to falling in love, dreams of a world with options. The famous English folk ballad, Scarborough Fair, also seems to also serve as a touchstone between classic and modern day interwoven into this period piece.

Enhanced by Aubrey Dube’s soothing sound design, Scenic designer Kristin Loeffler draws from a rural landscape as this large and symbolic tree stands as the production’s centerpiece occasionally surrounded by a Victrola, dangling chandelier, decanter and dining room set. Capitalized by Josephine Moshiri Elwood’s delicately detailed signature lilac gown, costumer Chelsea Kerl’s presents an elegant array of period pieces including puffy silhouette lace dresses as well as stately ties, button down coat and tails in velvet and pinstripes.

Bright eyed Josephine Moshiri Elwood is no stranger to period pieces having previously performed as vivacious Emma in Actors Shakespeare Company’s period play with a modern twist, Emma in 2024. Elwood is in her element and displays charismatic charm and a way with words as pensive Clarissa, especially in a laugh out loud moment when she passionately jokes about being ravaged by gravity. Daring, adventuresome, impressionable and somewhat naïve, Elwood’s Clarissa is an easy individual to root and become protective of as she shares her hopes and dreams apart from societal norms roaming her family’s Bourton estate.

While Elwood shares genuine and unrefined chemistry with Shobhit Piasa as Clarissa’s boastful yet well meaning childhood chum Peter who longs for something more, it is Haley Dyana Schwartz as enigmatic, manipulative, shrewd and persistent Sally who indulges her hopes and is consistently nearby with an agenda all her own. Schwartz is captivating as Sally who boasts a seemingly charismatic zest for life. However, Peter is not to be underestimated.

Jesse Garlick shows off his range and serves ample comic relief stepping into a few characters from egotistical and entitled to outlandish to humble and heroic as The Slew.

Funny and wistful, Dalloway First Love also explores several themes such as grief, status, ambition, growing up, prejudice and discovery. Though the production could be a bit tighter in its narrative, the production is at its best when it explores Clarissa’s profound introspectiveness discovering what will be her next step.

Gloucester Stage continues the world premiere of Lindsay Joelle’s romantic dramedy, Dalloway: First Love live and in person at Gloucester Stage in Gloucester, Massachusetts through Saturday, August 29. Click here for more information and for tickets.

REVIEW: Silence speaks volumes in Gloucester Stage Company’s clever and multi-faceted British play ‘Betrayal’

Posted on July 20 by The Sleepless Critic

“I think of you sometimes.”

The passing thought and echoes of an ex can come and go. In the aftermath of an affair, some things may also become crystal clear.

With layered direction by Shana Gozansky, Gloucester Stage Company continues Harold Pinter’s British drama, Betrayal live and in person at Gloucester Stage Company in Gloucester, Massachusetts through Saturday, August 1. This semi-autobiographical and non-linear production runs approximately 85 minutes with no intermission. Click here for more information and for tickets.

Gloucester Stage Company’s production of “Betrayal”, written by Harold Pinter and directed by Shana Gozansky, starring Liza Giangrande, Michael Underhill, Tanner Efinger, and Jeremy Beazlie, runs at the theater from July 11 though August 1, 2026.

© 2026 Shawn G. Henry • 978-590-4869

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Written in 1978, Harold Pinter’s Betrayal is a deeply personal play inspired by Pinter’s illicit real life affair with a BBC journalist. It delves into the lies, danger, suspicions, surprises, and secrets you hide from others as well as the ones you tell yourself when love takes an unexpected turn. I couldn’t help but notice the British holiday film, Love Actually shares a passing resemblance to Betrayal in one of its many popular plot lines and famous playwright Jason Robert Brown was inspired to pattern Pinter’s reverse chronological narrative style in Betrayal into his famous musical, The Last Five Years. Instead of building a story from the beginning, Pinter innovatively begs the question, “How did we all get here?”

Jeffrey Petersen’s intriguing avant guarde set serves as various locations featuring white chairs, a pastel background, a skewed mirror and red carpeting. While Amanda E. Fallon’s flashing shadows, silhouettes and psychedelic lighting in conjunction with Julian Crocamo’s jagged piano-infused sound design reverberates to rewind the clock, it is curious that the audience can bear witness to pieces of the action backstage. Perhaps an act of transparency in this complicated affair.

Time leaping from 1977 to 1968, Betrayal redefines and explores the nature of betrayal in all its forms. This witty cast share captivating chemistry and sharp comic timing. Liza Giangrande depicts romantic, complicated and disillusioned Emma who is married to Tanner Efinger as scholarly book publisher Robert, but sees an opportunity for freedom in Michael Underhill as dashing, married, and Robert’s oldest friend and fellow book publisher Jerry. Rounding out the cast is Jeremy Beazile who offers his own humor as the Waiter. Aside from an immense love of literature, Giangrande is compelling as Emma sharing playful and exciting chemistry with Underhill as Jerry and an enigmatic and restrained rapport with Robert.

Nia Safaar Banks creates posh ensembles not only faithful to the late 70s in psychedelic patterns, floral, and velvet coats, but creations that reflect the distinct personalities and vast differences in one another which is never better defined than in Michael Underhill as relaxed Jerry and Tanner Efinger as intellectual Robert. In sneakers and denim, Jerry is adventurous, dark and dashing while Robert is anxious, serious and seemingly safe in a distinguished sweater vest.

Pinter’s eccentric style of storytelling is always fascinating even at its most absurd which also exposes pointlessness, but here Pinter relies more on subtlety than absurdity. It is a production with a deeply meticulously restrained emotional core. Distressed sighs, ironies, layered conversations, loaded pauses, and the dignified and carefully composed comments are the real allure of this production embedded within Betrayal’s scandal. Betrayal is eccentrically understated with a wealth of humor, repression, symbolism, contradictions and revelations in an innovatively told tale. It takes a novel approach to each scene, especially the lack of awkwardness where it should be awkward and the profound meaning behind what is left unsaid.

Gloucester Stage Company continues Harold Pinter’s British drama, Betrayal live and in person at Gloucester Stage Company in Gloucester, Massachusetts through Sunday, Saturday, August 1. Click here for more information and for tickets.

REVIEW: Teaching and learning through adversity in Gloucester Stage’s impactful ‘No Child’

Posted on August 20, 2025 by The Sleepless Critic

“If you can read this, thank a teacher.”

An American proverb like this speaks volumes about teaching being the very foundation of most everything in life. Without the inspiring art of teaching, the world would be a very different place.

To think some people know they are born to teach and through it all, they do just that.

Beautifully directed by Pascale Florestal, Gloucester Stage continues Nilaja Sun’s semi-autobiographical No Child, a one person production continuing live and in person at Gloucester Stage Company in Gloucester, Massachusetts through Saturday, August 23. This insightful play within a play within a play contains strong language and runs 75 minutes with no intermission. Click here for more information and for tickets.

Valyn Lyric Turner in Gloucester Stage’s ‘No Child’ Photo credit: Jason Grow Photographer

The poorest congressional district in the nation is within the Bronx. One teacher embarks on a dubious journey to teach 27 tenth graders and quickly wonders if she may be in over her head. Valyn Lyric Turner, starring in this one person production, takes on this insurmountable challenge and rises to the challenge with grace, wit, humor, and integrity.

Narrated by Turner as Custodian Baron with a twinkle in her eye, Turner embodies a wide range of animated characters from youthful to the elderly in innovative and brilliant ways capturing distinct mannerisms, posture, tics, accents, diction as well as various expressions and languages. In a performance that might have come off bumpy and awkward, Turner’s shrewd solo performance is engaging and lively with each character uniquely and astutely personified through smooth and fascinating transitions.

Turner as Janitor Baron speaks directly to the audience with sage musings and historical knowledge of the Bronx school Baron has cleaned since 1958 while sharing the story of aspiring theatre teacher Miss Sun. In a tailored shirt and dark pants, Jose, Miss Sun, Jerome, Miss Kennedy, Miss Tam, Chris, and Janitor Baron are only a small portion of the dynamic characters Turner masterfully delivers in swift succession with finesse and unmitigated charm. Not only exacting accents from southern to Jamaican at times within the same breath, but taking it one step further by occasionally correcting pronunciations in character from one character to another. It is extraordinary to see Turner accomplish this amazing solo acting feat within this inspiring and absorbing tale.

Hazy windows, a weathered light fixture, an uncovered beige radiator and a water stained linoleum floor punctuated by two red steel classroom chairs at center stage detail Christina Todesco’s intricate scenic design. Sound designer Jacques Matellus conveys the production’s surroundings through the show’s atmospheric sound design which includes a metal detector, a moving train and the authentic sounding class bell.

One of the many highlights of this production is it radiates not only what it is like to be a teacher in a challenging classroom, but unveils a number of significant perspectives including, as Custodian Baron states, what these “academically challenged” students are like facing fears, apprehension, frustration, lowered expectations and for some, an embattled home life.

A humorous, timely, poignant, educational and inspiring journey, No Child remarkably explores the distractions, sacrifices and challenges that even the most patient teachers face and the power of every victory in the classroom and beyond.

Gloucester Stage continues Nilaja Sun’s semi-autobiographical No Child, a one person production continuing live and in person at Gloucester Stage Company in Gloucester, Massachusetts through Saturday, August 23. Click here for more information and for tickets.

REVIEW: Witnessing transformation in Gloucester Stage and Teatro Chelsea’s dramedy ‘The Hombres’

Posted on September 19, 2024 by The Sleepless Critic

Julián seems lonely and misunderstood, but not for long.

Ricardo “Ricky” Holguin delivers a moving performance as gay Latino yoga instructor Julián who has always been intimidated by macho men. When he realizes he has to deliver a message to a group of construction workers above the yoga studio, he must face his fear to unexpected results.

Directed affectingly by Armando Rivera with sweeping choreography by movement designer Nathaniel Justiniano, Gloucester Stage Company and Teatro Chelsea co-presents Tony Meneses’ dramedy The Hombres continuing at Gloucester Stage in Gloucester MA through September 22 before concluding at Chelsea Theatre Works from September 27 through September 29. The show runs 100 minutes with a 15 minute intermission. Click here for more information and for tickets.

Jaime José Hernández, Luis Negrón and Arthur Gomez in Gloucester Stage and Teatro Chelsea’s ‘The Hombres’ Photo by Jason Grow Photography

A group of Latino construction workers composed of Arthur Gomez as Héctor, Jaime José Hernández as Beto, and Luis Negrón as Pedro are working above a New Jersey yoga studio. This fascinating trio shares an easygoing and amusing rapport sharing dirty jokes, intriguing stories or fantasizing how good life must be for the gringos (people who are not Latino) working in the city. In impressive glowing neon hard hats and jackets by Chelsea Kerl with vivid lighting by John Holmes, they strut and occasionally goof off while on break looking down at the city and the yoga studio does not go unnoticed.

Ricardo “Ricky” Holguin and the cast of Gloucester Stage and Teatro Chelsea’s ‘The Hombres’ Photo by Jason Grow Photography

Rivera cleverly overlaps the construction and yoga studio scenes depicting how vastly different these environments are until they inevitably collide. Scenic designer Kristin Loeffler makes the most of the stage as it highlights these contrasting worlds structurally connected featuring candles, incense, crystal and brass offering bowls, yoga blocks and mats while movable scaffolding and various pieces of equipment adorn the background. Julian Crocamo’s catchy sound design, highlighted by metal clanging infused rhythms and meaningful club and ruminating music, is a lively addition to this tale.

Ricardo “Ricky” Holguin and Patrick O’Konis in Gloucester Stage and Teatro Chelsea’s ‘The Hombres’ Photo by Jason Grow Photography

In a bandana and loose and flowing clothes, Julián seems tuned in and often empathetic towards others. An aspiring dancer, Julián is caring, funny, unassuming, sensitive, a bit of an over thinker and an amazing listener often finding himself engaging in other people’s problems and connecting to those around him more often by circumstance than by his own will. Patrick O’Konis portrays conflicted and friendly yoga member Miles who is also a bit of an enigma. Holguin is wonderful navigating the trepidation within Julián’s encounters with others with a mix of caution and relatable humor.

Ricardo “Ricky” Holguin and Arthur Gomez in Gloucester Stage and Teatro Chelsea’s ‘The Hombres’ Photo by Jason Grow Photography

Arthur Gomez as Héctor is earnest, vulnerable, and frustrated with his life and longs to make a change. Gomez’s Héctor thinks Julián may have the answers to his problems. The connections established in this show are stirring, heartwarming, and complex as it explores the lives and struggles of these Latino men. Julián often expresses himself through dance which leads a number of uplifting and humorous situations.

Ricardo “Ricky” Holguin and Luis Negrón in Gloucester Stage and Teatro Chelsea’s ‘The Hombres’ Photo by Jason Grow Photography

The Hombres is a well paced production with a captivating cast as each character undergoes some sort of mental, physical or spiritual transformation. Even in its unpredictable turn of events, it is a hopeful show that explores friendship, brotherhood, and what is truly means to be a real man.

Directed affectingly by Armando Rivera with sweeping choreography by movement designer Nathaniel Justiniano, Gloucester Stage and Teatro Chelsea co-presents Tony Meneses’ dramedy The Hombres continuing at Gloucester Stage in Gloucester MA through September 22 before concluding at Chelsea Theatre Works from September 27 through September 29. Click here for more information and for tickets.

REVIEW: Embrace life and pursue the ultimate wave with Gloucester Stage’s summer soaked world premiere comedy ‘Wipeout’

Posted on July 16, 2024 by The Sleepless Critic

It is never too late to try something new.

Margaret nicknamed Gary, is ready to take risks. Whether throwing caution to wind by neglecting to wear sunscreen or a seatbelt, Gary is finally embarking on a lifelong dream – to ride the ultimate wave for her 77^th birthday in Santa Cruz, California…having never set foot in the water before.

Cheryl D. Singleton, Karen MacDonald and Noelle Player in Gloucester Stage’s ‘Wipeout’ Photo by Jason Grow

With innovative and at times hilarious direction by Shana Gozansky as well as inviting lighting by Kat C Zhou, Gloucester Stage could not have chosen a more perfect time in its 45^th season to unveil the world premiere of Aurora Real de Asua’s comedy Wipeout continuing live and in person at Gloucester Stage in Gloucester, Massachusetts through July 28. The production contains a mix of important and needlessly explicit language, adult themes and runs approximately 100 minutes with no intermission. Click here for more information and for tickets.

Noelle Player and Karen MacDonald in Gloucester Stage’s ‘Wipeout’ Photo by Jason Grow

Surrounded by brightly colored beach balls on an aqua draped landscape, three women and one handsome teenage Santa Cruz Surf Skool instructor take to the waves depicted in a wooden pool like structure with sea turtles and various marine life painted on its perimeter. The absence of water in Jenna McFarland Lorde’s immensely exuberant set design embellishes the humor and endearing moments in this production as rolling chairs carry surfboards. Infuse Aubrey Dube’s immersive Pacific Ocean sounds and Wipeout transforms into one lively surfing safari.

Wipeout’s excellent physical comedy is hysterical as the group carefully wades through the ‘water’ in scrupulous and urgent strokes while each character balances on their individual board. In water shoes and matching surf skool t-shirts by Jennifer Greeke, Gary, depicted with captivating depth and bawdy audacity by Karen MacDonald, is excitable, adventurous, and a playful prankster but there might be more to that than meets the eye. MacDonald’s more serious moments are equally adept in a glassy-eyed grimace or squirming consternation. Supportive, wise, cheerful and grounded school teacher Claudia portrayed beautifully by Cheryl D. Singleton, shares true companionship with Noelle Player as haughty and glamorous with a bit of a chip of her shoulder Wynn and Gary through the manner in which they share memories, meanderings, insecurities, inside jokes, gossip and bawdy references at times with Golden Girls flair. They embody a solid, longtime, and intimate friendship through thick and thin. This engaging trio fumbles to find common ground with Thomas Bilotta who is instantly likable as their patient, enthusiastic, and compassionate teenage instructor Blaze which is met with intriguing results. Wipeout is full of surprises as well as stirring and authentic life lessons as each character explores instinct, life’s unpredictability, mortality, and what is really means to embrace life to the fullest.

Noelle Player and Thomas Bilotta in Gloucester Stage’s ‘Wipeout’ Photo by Jason Grow

With innovative and at times hilarious direction by Shana Gozansky and inviting lighting by Kat C Zhou, Gloucester Stage could not have chosen a more perfect time in its 45^th season to unveil the world premiere of Aurora Real de Asua’s dramedy Wipeout continuing live and in person at Gloucester Stage Company in Gloucester, Massachusetts through July 28. The production contains a mix of significant and needlessly explicit language, adult themes and runs approximately 100 minutes with no intermission. Click here for more information and for tickets.