Theatre and Tyranny Merge in The Roman Actor

by Charles Culbertson, Staunton News Leader, March 18, 2010

While "The Roman Actor" by Phillip Massinger (1583-1640) isn't obscure by any stretch of the imagination — in fact, it is considered by many to be the playwright's finest work — it isn't as widely produced as some other plays of the era. Which is a shame, because it is a blistering and highly entertaining look at tyranny, politics and morality in the days of the Roman Empire that also provides performers with great prospects for strutting their stuff. 

And at the Blackfriars Playhouse, they do, gleefully mining the dramatic possibilities that lie in characters such as a popular tragedian, a despotic emperor, a duplicitous sexpot and a gutless, sycophantic senator (if you can imagine that).

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