Pittsburgh City Paper: It's odd that a play written in 1943 could be so postmodern, but such is the Howard Richardson/William Berney semi-hit of yesteryear, Dark of the Moon, now at Point Park's Conservatory Theatre.Here's the deal: There's an old folk song about a woman named Barbara Allen, who is so loved by a Witch Boy that he makes a deal to become human. In the way of these things, it doesn't end happily. Richardson & Berney dramatized that story using the song as a blueprint. So far, so good. However ...
1 comment:
I love Dark of the Moon. I first read it in an acting class when I was a freshman in high school, then went to see a 16-year-old friend play Barbara Allen in a local theatre's production about a year and a half ago. That being said, this review is awful. The author spends the first 3/4 of the review talking about how the underlying concept, the fact that Barbara and the Witch boy sing "The Ballad of Barbara Allen" while living it out, is difficult, and then throws about four sentences in at the end about how Point Park's production is too big for this "pokey little play." Having not seen this production, I can't speak to his analysis of their production, but I will say that I feel the author has taken his poor understanding of the script (which, in my mind at least, is about how right and wrong are twisted in a group setting) and really done a disservice to the production and to Point Park.
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