kimberley lynne.
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Reviews A Dickens of a Carol “Playwright Kimberley Lynne's one-person show deftly combines events from Dickens' life with scenes from A Christmas Carol, using the biographic elements to explain what may have led the British author to write this tale. The death of his beloved sister-in-law Mary haunted Dickens throughout his life, as did his family's time in a debtor's prison. Lynne uses these circumstances to punctuate his interest in spirits and the horrors of poverty, themes that run throughout his work, and she lets Dickens describe his feelings in his own words using passages from his actual letters.” Love for Words “If Mozart could write an opera when he was four, why couldn’t Shakespeare have single-handedly (and somewhat miraculously) created such a massive body of monumental work before his death at the age of 52? Whether you find that question of interest or not will in no way alter your appreciation of this thought-provoking work, though it may go a long way to enhancing the theatrical experience in store at the AXIS. Either way, you’ll see a highly intelligent script from a local talent deserving of, and no doubt destined for, more widespread attention.” “Interestingly, the play by the local playwright Kimberley Lynne outshines that of famed professional (Ntozake Shange’s The Love Space Demands) in this second annual summer showcase of work by women and people of color. The effectiveness of Love for Words is particularly noteworthy considering that Lynne has taken on the daunting subject of Shakespeare’s life.” “Baltimore playwright Kimberley Lynne definitely has a thing for Shakespeare...The emotional core of Lynne’s drama concerns the relationship between Shakespeare and his older daughter, Susanna. Though Bethany Hoffman’s slovenly and surly Susanna initially appears to have traveled to her father’s bedside merely to make sure she receives her inheritance, as the play progresses, her respect for his writing is revealed. And when her father’s affection for her becomes evident in the end, we get a view of Shakespeare as a human being, instead of a merely a historical figure.” “Lynne manages to approximate Elizabethan language and Shakespearean wit consistently through-out the play’s 90 minutes—no small feat...Lynne clearly believes that too much time is wasted authenticating art instead of valuing it, and that Shakespeare has been lost on Americans who treat it like some stodgy necessity instead of living, breathing expression. Art may be for all ages, but it may suffer for it.” The Last Battle of the American Revolution “Lynne’s work is heartfelt and full of stuff that even devotees of American history may have missed or long forgotten...Prudence’s story is a compelling one. She’s a brainy, assertive girl who clings to the old-time religion she was raised with back in Illinois, even as she knows that her foes hold up the Bible as justification for female’s second-class status. One of the achievements of Lynne’s work is that it highlights the deep religious feeling that drove suffragists, many of whom had also worked diligently for passage of the 18th Amendment (aka Prohibition).” It’ll Do a Body Good “Kimberley Lynne’s It’ll Do a Body Good is probably the best idea of the night, an open (and hilarious) attack on the milk industry, with Bob Holum as a rabble-rousing arteriosclerosis patient and Maria Bloom as a dubious attorney. “ Really Big Expectations “The production, directed by Laura Hackman, is amusing, and Lynne is a literate and clever writer.” |
James Kinstle played Charles Dickens in A Dickens of a Carol
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