"I'm moved by how many of them are fundamentally about the act of conjuring, of making believe within an empty or even a hostile space - imagination and embodiment as radical efforts, courageous and purgative, at times frightening or cautionary. I'm moved because it's the oldest and the youngest form of theater - " Sing in me, muse" ... " Let's pretend" - and because it marks a shift away from the flatter, more self-certain issue dramas."
"Kip Williams's camera-happy adaptation of Oscar Wilde's still deadly clever novella came as such a delight. Sarah Snook cartwheeled through 26 roles - from the beautiful and doomed protagonist to his oily, eloquent corruptor, Lord Henry, to the tragically self-sabotaging actress Sibyl Vane - without, seemingly, losing her breath or putting a single curl on Dorian's golden head out of place."
Many 2025 theater productions center on conjuring and making-believe within empty or hostile spaces, treating imagination and embodiment as radical, courageous, and purgative acts. Theatrical work is shifting away from flatter, self-certain issue dramas toward plays that combine political urgency with rich character life and mystery. Productions such as Liberation and John Proctor Is the Villain balance politics with emotional depth. Stagings like Vanya, The Brothers Size, and Lobster create wrenching magic from the act of storytelling. Kip Williams's inventive scenography and Sarah Snook's multirole performance transformed an almost-empty stage into a Technicolor whirlwind, culminating in a giddy high and an inevitable crash.
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