Subtitle: 
Series B
Total Rating: 
***
Opened: 
May 23, 2008
Ended: 
June 20, 2008
Country: 
USA
State: 
New York
City: 
New York
Company/Producers: 
Ensemble Studio Theater
Theater Type: 
Off-Broadway
Theater: 
Ensemble Studio Theater
Theater Address: 
549 West 52 Street
Website: 
ensemblestudiotheatre.org
Genre: 
One-Acts
Author: 
various
Director: 
various
Review: 

Ensemble Studio Theater's annual One-Act Festival is now on, and, as usual, it's a major treat of the year; they select a variety of good plays, and the level of acting is always high.

Series B has a special reward: Laila Robins, radiant in a Neil LaBute domestic squabble, The Great War. She's nicely matched by Grant Shaud and well-directed by Andrew McCarthy. Lloyd Suh's Happy Birthday William Abernathy is an interesting view of racial mixing with an old white man (Joe Ponazecki) and his Asian grandson (Peter Kim). Anne Washburn's October/November, an encounter between a 16-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy, is quite cute, and David Zellnik's well-performed (by Bryan Fenkart, Pun Bandhu and Siho Ellsmore) Ideogram is full of intriguing ideas.
The closer, Okay, by Taylor Mac, directed by Jose Zayas, is a delightful play set in a ladies room on prom night as a girl is about to give birth, and a stream of people enter and leave the room as she hides. Another rewarding evening.

Cast: 
Laila Robins, Grant Shaud, Joe Ponazecki, Peter Kim, bryan Fenkart, Pun Bandhu, Siho Ellsmore.
Critic: 
Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed: 
June 2008