It’s a damnable cliche to say upon the production of some classic, canonical work that it’s as relevant today as it was when first produced but it also tends to be true. Arthur Miller may have told the tale of the Salem Witch Trials with an intent to comment on 1950s anti-Communist hysteria but it works just as well as a rebuke of the fires of fanaticism currently burning in Florida and elsewhere, and will work just as well for whatever will be ailing us in twenty years time. (Probably some intersection of oppression of and/or by robots) Great plays don’t change and neither do we. In the small Invictus space, director Charles Askenaizer gives us a superb rendition of Miller’s masterpiece. None of the cast ever leaves the stage (when not in action, they sit in pews as if in congregation and sometimes point mutually accusing fingers) The show treats us to some damn near perfect performances from actors who literally might have been born to play their roles. None more so than Mark...

   I worked as a stocker in a grocery store for about a month, years ago. It felt like a decade. There's nothing particularly new that is said about the misery of low wage work in America to be found in Ken Green's In The Back/On The Floor directed by Rachel Van and produced by Stage Left but it nonetheless needs to be said and the production says it well.    Our ensemble of protagonists works for Home Base, a thinly veiled, unspeakably cheery Wal-Mart stand in. And why shouldn't they be cheery? They make billions in profit while paying their workers nine dollars an hour, assuring them that they are "family" while reminding them at every turn how disposable they are. As a lucky audience we get to watch indignity upon indignity be heaped on these retail floor warriors, they're sent home just before the 40 hour mark, denying them benefits, they're promised a "prize" if they meet their unloading goals twenty times in a row ("Tacos or something...