		The Flame and the Stone
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CLICK HERE FOR RECENT REVIEWS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER CLICK ON PLAY FOR AUDIENCE REVIEWS FOR THAT PLAY Abducted Action! Asian for Dummies Ball and Daisy Chain Can You See Me? Certain Things... Chinese Clown Cabaret Cincinatti Come Fly With Me Nude Comedy on the Square divagation Faker Flame and the Stone Flower Murderer Framework Future Folkloric Hollywoodland Home/Darkness Hooray for Speech... It's Stupid to Steal... Late Night With God Long-Form Improv &... m.i. blue's TWILITE... Magic @ the Fringe Moliere Than Thou nEO-sURREALISTS Present Other American Stories Oui Be Negroes PAIN Quarter Into It Rabbit Causes Dog Rap Canterbury Tales Reframing the Hourglass Short and Sweet... some life Subhuman-True Tales... This Love Train... Thrilling Adventures... Tonight: The Harsh … Under the Counter... Viva Karaoke!... Viva Vivi Wrestling an Alligator Young War Zeppelin Beach Improv		Play: the flame and the stone Reviewer: annika Reviewer Email: Rating: 5 Stars Well-crafted story of Yeats and his relation with Maud Gonne, told against the background of "the troubles" in Ireland in the late 19th century. Very well-acted and worth seeing. Play: The Flame and the Stone Reviewer: Jay Martin Reviewer Email: scenography@hotmail.com Rating: 5 Stars A young poet, William Butler Yeats, and a young protester, Maud Gonne, both long to restore something taken from the Irish. They long for each other, too. They aren't young anymore when the story ends, fifty years later, and Ireland hasn't recovered the ancient spirituality Yeats wanted it to have or the full nationality Gonne wanted it to have. In simple terms, Yeats worried about the Irish's beliefs and Gonne worried about the Irish's eats. I know which side I'm on (first the sausage, then the sermon, as Brecht said) but this story is about how these two influential people influenced each other. Gonne gives life to rebel courage and gives Yeats the true news about politics that he needs. In the flesh, Yeats's faith in paganism and in drugs seems more hopeful than crackpot, and Gonne comes to share his hope. Almost all that's on the stage are two actors. And the actors are close to the audience. I'd always rather see good acting up close than on the other side of a mammoth theater. I'd also always rather see a play about politics than about sexual trauma or spiritual beliefs, but in the story of Yeats and Gonne all of those are tied together. Because it's a story of fact, it isn't always foreseeable where the story goes next, and it isn't ever inevitable where it goes. If it had been fiction, the playwright would have sent the story somewhere else, maybe even somewhere happy. But after these small scenes, I felt I had seen the large lives of Yeats and Gonne. Play: Flame and the Stone Reviewer: Maureen Reviewer Email: Very engaging Irish historical play about a fascinating couple, W.B. Yeats and his great love/muse Maud Gonne. Helpful to read the program notes and timelines to get a bit of Irish history before seeing. The episodic nature sometimes keeps it at an emotional distance, but the performances are superb! The accompanying slide show seemed superfluous, though. Well worth seeing! Play: The Flame and the Stone Reviewer: Charles Reviewer Email: Rating: 4 Stars This is a biographical drama about the relationship between poet W.B. Yeats and Maud Gonne McBride in Ireland during the late 1800's-early 1900's when Ireland was fighting for its independence from Britain. A timeline was helpfully included with the program notes. Read them, as well as the biographical notes about the two in the program itself. It will help. I found the acting to be engaging. Although a few lines were lost to me here and there by the accents, breath, or volume, it was quite understandable. I felt for the characters' (and Ireland's) respective plights. There are a couple places where the time gaps between the scenes were unexplained (they part mad at each other, then next scene they joyfully greet each other). Aside from that, the development of the characters made sense. I recommend that you see this play.