Extremities
Extremities by William Mastrosimone
Also Known As Theatre
Directed by Alexandra Smith
March 28-April 13, 2019 at First Church, Cambridge, MA
Cast: Alissa Cordeiro, Srin Chakravorty, Amanda Dane, and Chingwe Padraig Sullivan
Stage Manager: Karlie Fitzgerald
AKA Producer: Kelly Smith
Scenic: Ben Lieberson
Costumes: Heather Oshinsky
Props: Erin McCarthy
Violence and Intimacy: Jessica Scout Malone
Post-Show Speakers: Representatives from the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and the Cambridge Commission on the Status of Women
Photos: Ashley Yung
Press:
BostonStageNotes - Best of Boston 2019 (Boston Stage Notes)
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"Brutal and nasty in all the right ways, dancing right up to the line of being obscene. What kept the play in my mind through the year, though, were the subtle ways it challenged the audience to rethink how we view survivors of rape. As the collective culture is finally taking steps to grapple with that issue, Extremities felt like necessary viewing."
AKA Theater’s ‘Extremities’ is Tough, Terrifying and Thrilling (Theater Mirror)
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"Nothing short of cinematic, in the best possible way. Extremities manages to rethink the possibility of live theater, capturing the crackling energy and painful brutality seemingly possible only on the screen while remaining true to the fundamentals of stage performance."
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"First-class theater."
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"Alexandra Smith’s direction soars with a canny understanding of staging and pacing."
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"Sacrificing neither political power nor aesthetic prowess, Extremities is a tightly-constructed and astonishing piece of theater, its incisive social critique matched only by its rare craft. It is not to be missed."
Extremities – AKA Theatre (Boston Stage Notes)
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"This is a production that’s looking to shake up the audience in a big way and make no mistake, it comes at you with all of the force it can muster. It feels somewhat perverse to call a play like this thrilling, but when a theater company nails a play the way AKA Theatre nails this one, the result is thrilling."
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"[Smith] keeps the play grounded and also manages to find the vein of wicked black humor that runs through it."
He’s Asking For It: “Extremities” (New England Theatre Geek)
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"Important storytelling. It is feminist and courageous."
Review: EXTREMITIES - Also Known As Theatre (BroadwayWorld)
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"Superbly directed by Alexandra Smith, leading a strong cast of actors."
Previews:
At the theater, furious rebuttals in the age of #MeToo (Boston Globe Critic's Notebook)
‘The Audacity’: It’s her story, and her story, and hers, too (Boston Globe STAGES Column)
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"William Mastrosimone’s 1982 play “Extremities” explores the obstacles victims of sexual assault face when they try to seek justice. Nearly 40 years later, Also Known As Theatre presents a new production that shines a light on how little that has changed."