BroadStreetReview: HOW & WHY is "Crackling... Instantly Engrossing... Ingeniously Realized"

Check out these excerpts from Alaina Mabaso's review of THE HOW AND THE WHY from Broad Street Review:

In THE HOW AND THE WHY, Sarah Treem rapidly unpacks a world of interpersonal aspersions, thwarted love, feminist struggle and scientific theory. Although her play is dense with themes and ideas, it’s a crackling two hours, thanks to Seth Rozin’s fast-paced direction and two character-driven actresses... Advancing a brand-new, controversial scientific theory is difficult enough, but it’s a grueling life’s work if you happen to be a woman... So theorizes Zelda (the well-grounded Janis Dardaris), an experienced evolutionary biologist, to her young acolyte Rachel (an achingly volatile Victoria Frings)... Treem sets the audience to the instantly engrossing task of discerning the relationship between Zelda and Rachel... provid[ing] especially fertile ground for many a potent meditation on sexism among scientists. By the time the sharpening personal dynamic between Zelda and Rachel expands to include arguments on marriage, pregnancy, parenthood and career, the play brims over while Zelda and Rachel continue to impugn each other’s intentions... Despite the intellectual weight of Treem’s script, Dardaris and Frings — no doubt guided by director Seth Rozin — deliver a thoroughly character-driven performance that makes two scenes of crackling dialogue the fastest two hours I’ve ever spent at the theater. Meghan Jones offers two ingeniously realized sets. Still, I left the Adrienne ruminating not on the characters’ fraught relationship but on the evolutionary theories advanced in Treem’s script. I wanted to corner the playwright (or some unsuspecting biologist) and pepper her with questions about evolutionary theory. That provocation alone made the evening worthwhile.

Read Alaina Mabaso's Entire Review at BroadStreetReview.com


Links to more information about THE HOW AND THE WHY:

Purchase Tickets

Watch the Video Trailer

Read Howard Shapiro's Philadelphia Inquirer Review

An Interview with Playwright Sarah Treem

City Paper: HOW & WHY is a "Symphony of Science... Gripping Production... Fascinating Characters"

Check out these excerpts from Mark Cofta's review of THE HOW AND THE WHY from Philadelphia City Paper:

Symphony of Science

... In InterAct Theatre Co.'s gripping production, both women are ambitious professionals whose choices are directly and indirectly influenced by men. Therein lies Treem's theme: In their scientific theories and their life paths, both see women as defined by men... Dardaris and Frings deliver all that Treem's script asks of them. Zelda struggles believably to separate passions personal and professional, while... Frings somehow keeps Rachel grounded and, by the end, genuine and sympathetic.

Treem's science-heavy dialogue isn't the quippy nonsense of The Big Bang Theory, but seemingly viable notions about the "why" of menstruation and menopause... Woven through the science and university research's thorny politics in THE HOW AND THE WHY are meaty yet familiar mother-daughter issues. Facts are revealed, tears are shed, and apologies follow condemnations, yet Treem wisely stops short of happily ever after for these two driven, conflicted, fascinating characters.

Read Mark Cofta's Entire Philadelphia City Paper Review

Links to more information about THE HOW AND THE WHY:

Purchase Tickets

Watch the Video Trailer

Read Howard Shapiro's Philadelphia Inquirer Review

An Interview with Playwright Sarah Treem

Staged Blog: "Dardaris’ Poise and Frings’ Energy... is Fascinating and Enthralling"

Check out these excerpts from Leah Franqui's review of THE HOW AND THE WHY from Staged Blog:

The Origin of the Species

... despite all of the many accomplishments of the female of the species, it seems that women are forever in the position of defending their worth, as we see in Sarah Treem’s THE HOW AND THE WHY... And not just to men, but to each other... When these two brilliant, ambitious, flawed female scientists meet for the first time as adults, it’s as much a chess match as it is a reunion...

Dardaris’ excellent Zelda is a wise, wry and utterly mature foil to Rachel’s spastic nature; she is measured where Rachel is erratic, thoughtful where Rachel is impulsive, and yet, somehow, the more daring one of the two... in Zelda, Treme has placed the self-awareness of age, and the confidence that comes with knowing that you can and do live with the choices you have made... Played with consummate grace and skill by Frings, Rachel is smart, calculating, and more than a little manipulative, but also deeply damaged.

But where Treem’s smart but somehow lacking text fails, these two actresses succeed, and then some. The play itself is messy, often unclear, and sometimes flat-out contradictory, but the combination of Dardaris’ poise and Frings’ energy create a momentum that is fascinating and enthralling... It is the strong and engaging work of both of these tremendous and fantastically matched actresses that keep this play in motion... It is Frings' fantastically fractured but defiantly determined performance paired with Dardaris’ knock-out strength and elegance that make this play work...

Read Leah Franqui's Entire Staged Blog Review

Links to more information about THE HOW AND THE WHY:

Purchase Tickets

Watch the Video Trailer

Read Howard Shapiro's Philadelphia Inquirer Review

An Interview with Playwright Sarah Treem

STAGE Magazine: HOW & WHY is "Convincing & Elegantly Crafted... Powerful... Delightful"

Check out these excerpts from Christopher Munden's review of THE HOW AND THE WHY from STAGE Magazine:

InterAct’s THE HOW AND THE WHY is
Well Written and Full of Ideas

... like much else in Sarah Treem’s well-crafted THE HOW AND THE WHY, now receiving its second-ever production by Philadelphia’s InterAct Theatre, oceans of meaning lay just below the surface... with convincing and elegantly crafted dialogue, [Treem] has created a dramatically engaging and surprisingly funny piece that never feels didactic or heavy-handed.

Credit for this goes also to director Seth Rozin (also InterAct’s artistic director), who... draws powerful performances from both actors. Dardaris particularly gives a spot-on and consistent interpretation of a seasoned academic...

The play is not without its faults... But as a vehicle to express provoking ideas it is a resounding success. All of the science in THE HOW AND THE WHY is real, and it’s delightful to see so many interesting thoughts presented so accessibly... in short, THE HOW AND THE WHY is a strongly feminist work that just feels strongly human.

Read Christopher Munden's Entire STAGE Magazine Review

Links to more information about THE HOW AND THE WHY:

Purchase Tickets

Watch the Video Trailer

Read Howard Shapiro's Philadelphia Inquirer Review

An Interview with Playwright Sarah Treem