Thursday, December 01, 2005

Not a great night of chess entertainment

The Boston Globe was less than enamored with the Merrimack Repertory Theatre's world premiere of "The Art of Sacrifice":

In "The Art of Sacrifice," receiving its world premiere at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Anthony Clarvoe uses chess as the generational battleground, and if you think chess isn't the most dramatic way to illustrate father-son problems, you're absolutely right....

Certainly, Clarvoe has metaphors on his mind when he brings out the chessboard. A chess move illustrating the art of sacrifice foretells what happens in the plot, though given the title of the play, this is not a particularly shocking development....

Clarvoe showed far more promise with "Ambition Facing West," a play about the immigrant experience, staged at Trinity Repertory Company in 1997. "The Art of Sacrifice" is ambition unrealized.

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