Today was a theatre day, consisting of Antony and Cleopatra at Theatre for New Audience and Ty Jones' Emancipation at the Classical Theatre of Harlem, two companies that we love dearly and have subscribed to for years. Unfortunately, despite the heaps of strong reviews, I wasn't in love with either, for similar reasons: the productions were thoughtful, attractively designed, elegantly acted, intellectually appealing, and politically striking,
but I couldn't connect with either of them emotionally. In cases like this I'm prone to wondering if it was just me—was I distracted? was I in the mood for lighter fare?—but I don't think so: a college Shakespeare prof of mine who was at TFANA for the talkback concurred that A&C "acted very well, right past each other"; and Emancipation was oddly bloodless given the subject matter (the trial of Nat Turner after his slave rebellion) and the the gloriously engaging work I've seen come out of CTH director Chris McElroen in the past. Still: one could do much worse.