‘QUEENS’: (Left to right) Marin Ireland, Nadine Malouf, Nicole Villamil & Brooke Bloom. Photo: Valerie Terranova.

QUEENS
By Martyna Majok
Directed by Trip Cullman
Through December 7, 2025
Manhattan Theatre Club
NY City Center Stage I
131 West 55th Street
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/

By Scott Harrah

Martyna Majok’s Queens has returned Off-Broadway in a reworked, deeply moving production directed by Trip Cullman. Set in an illegal basement apartment in Queens, the play explores the intersecting lives of immigrant women from across the globe.  These women come from Poland, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and beyond. All the women are struggling to survive in America while reckoning with the past they left behind.

The story

Queens spans from 2001 to 2017 and follows a group of immigrant women from around the world who share the same cramped space while struggling to build new lives in America. When a young Ukrainian woman named Inna (Julia Lester) arrives searching for her estranged mother, she stirs up painful memories and forces the others—particularly Renia (Marin Ireland), the Polish landlord of sorts—to confront the choices and sacrifices they’ve made in pursuit of safety, dignity, and belonging. The women’s stories unfold through shifting timelines and layered interactions, creating a poignant mosaic of survival, identity, and the costs of the American Dream.

Martyna Majok’s unsentimental script examines what it means to build a new life in an unfamiliar place while leaving another one behind. Each character’s story adds texture to the collective immigrant experience, and as the play toggles between 2001 and 2017, the audience witnesses how time, loss, and reinvention shape each woman’s path.

Outstanding ensemble cast

Stage veteran Marin Ireland anchors the production with her remarkable portrayal of Renia, a Polish immigrant whose stoic strength masks deep emotional scars. Ms. Ireland’s mastery of dialects and nuance brings authenticity to every line. Equally compelling is Anna Chlumsky as Agata, whose realism and quiet heartbreak elevate the play’s emotional core. Nadine Malouf gives a particularly poignant performance as Aamani, an Afghan woman whose memories of surviving Taliban oppression and her identity as a woman and a lesbian lend the show moments of haunting despair.

Trip Cullman directs with his usual sensitivity and precision, keeping the pacing tight despite the script’s complex, time-jumping structure. The dialogue occasionally becomes dense and obtuse, especially in scenes where the women speak in thick accents or other languages, making it hard to follow at times. Still, Ms. Majok’s reworked script (originally staged in 2018) is much improved — clearer, more cohesive, and thematically resonant in today’s political climate.

Relevant in modern-day America

For a drama steeped in heavy themes, Queens never drags. Its honesty about immigration, sacrifice, and female resilience feels especially urgent and topical in 2025 America. The result is an affecting, beautifully acted piece of theater that stays with you long after the lights go down.

Published November 6, 2025
Reviewed at press performance on October 30, 2025

‘QUEENS’: Marin Ireland & Anna Chlumsky. Photo: Valerie Terranova.

‘QUEENS’: (Clockwise from top left): The cast; Brooke Bloom & Nadine Malouf; Anna Chulmsky; Julia Lester & Marin Ireland. Photos: Valerie Terranova.

‘QUEENS’: Marin Ireland & Sharlene Cruz. Photo: Valerie Terranova.

‘QUEENS’: (top) Julia Lester; (bottom) Andrea Syglowski. Photos: Valerie Terranova.

‘QUEENS’: Nicole Villamil & Marin Ireland. Photo: Valerie Terranova.

‘QUEENS’: Nadine Malouf, Nicole Villamil, Marin Ireland & Brooke Bloom. Photo: Valerie Terranova.

The post ‘Queens’: Immigrant women, enduring dreams appeared first on StageZine.

‘TIME AND THE CONWAYS’: (left to right) Elizabeth McGovern, Charlotte Parry & Anna Baryshnikov. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

TIME AND THE CONWAYS
Written by J. B. Priestley
Directed by Rebecca Taichman
Through November 26, 2017
American Airlines Theater
227 West 42nd Street
(212-719-1300), www.RoundaboutTheatre.org

By David NouNou

Written and performed on the London stage in 1937, J. B. Priestley uses the basis of time travel to showcase a family’s life and changes. Starting in 1919, the first part of Act 1 shows us the giddy, frivolous lives of an upper-middle-class British family (the Conways) at the end of World War 1.

On this particular night, the Conways are celebrating Kay’s (Charlotte Parry) 21st birthday. Kay is one of six children blessed to Mrs. Conway (Elizabeth McGovern) who is now a widow. Kay wants to be an author/writer and is unsuccessful in her endeavors. Her siblings consist of a doltish older brother, Alan (Gabriel Ebert) who is a clerk in a dead-end job; she has a younger sister, the beauty, Hazel (Anna Camp) who is vapid and only cares about her looks and pleasures; another sister, the Socialist and spinsterly Madge (Brooke Bloom); the youngest sister, the lovely childlike Carol ( Anna Baryshnikov); and the returning soldier and golden boy, Robin (Matthew James Thomas). Tonight, Kay is orchestrating her party and is assigning charade duties with costumes to her mother and siblings for the pleasure of the guests that have been invited.

In the middle of these proceedings, part two of Act 1 comes to view. With the wonderfully designed set by Neil Patel, the current living room fades backward and from the ceiling descends a less ornate version of it and the year is 1938, a year later than when the play was presented. Kay has returned from London to her home by the request of her mother. Kay is a writer for a magazine that interviews movie stars who visit England. She has come home on the day that coincides with her 40th birthday. Also, there are her siblings. In the ensuing 19 years, “time” hasn’t been that good to the Conways. Only Alan, the dolt, has the good sense and serenity to take things as they come and flow with the tide. This upheaval has disastrous consequences for the rest of the siblings. Hazel has married a rich bully, Ernest Beevers (Steven Boyer), who takes vengeance on her and the Conways. Madge has become a spinsterish school headmistress. Robin has become a drunkard, deserted his wife and family, and failed in all his endeavors. Worst of all is Mrs. Conway, who is about to lose her home and her children’s inheritance.

Act II goes back to 1919 to reveal what led to this downfall. Of course, the end of the war has a lot to do with it, due to social economics and the changes that are taking place around the world to which the Conways are totally blithe. The impoverished Beevers, who came to court Hazel. was ridiculed by her and the family. Similarly, Gerald Thornton, the family solicitor (Alfredo Narciso), who was only seen as their employee, now controls the purse strings. The uniqueness of Time and the Conways isn’t just the reversal of fortunes, it’s also about how the frivolous and feckless who look down on people create the monsters that unseat them.

The acting is uneven by mostly everyone. Elizabeth McGovern, as Mrs. Conway, is unconvincing as her younger self in Act I, some of her children look older than her. However, as her older and hardened self of 1938, she is riveting and heartbreaking. Steven Boyer, who was spellbinding in Hand to God, now in a much smaller role, is frightening as the belligerent Beevers who changes from an eager wooer to a maniacal bully to exact revenge is perfect. Charlotte Parry, as Kay, is charming and engaging and it never ceases to amaze me how Gabriel Ebert can play a dolt and be able to steal every scene whether here, in Matilda or Therese Raquin.

Time and The Conways does have a moral to it; frivolity and fecklessness have a price, it’s not all about the fun, parties and wishful dreaming. Pertinent to our current situation, but in reverse, enjoy yourself now, make every minute count, because World War III may be around the corner.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 15, 2017
Reviewed at October 14, 2017 press performance.

‘TIME AND THE CONWAYS’: (left to right) Matthew James Thomas, Gabriel Ebert, Anna Baryshnikov. Charlotte Parry, Elizabeth McGovern & Anna Camp. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

‘TIME AND THE CONWAYS’: (left to right) Gabriel Ebert, Anna Baryshnikov, Anna Camp, Elizabeth McGovern & Matthew James Thomas. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

‘TIME AND THE CONWAYS’: (left to right) Matthew James Thomas, Gabriel Ebert, Steven Boyer & Charlotte Parry. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

‘TIME AND THE CONWAYS’: (left to right) Anna Baryshnikov, Charlotte Parry, Matthew James Thomas & Anna Camp. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

‘TIME AND THE CONWAYS’: (left to right) Elizabeth McGovern, Brooke Bloom & Charlotte Parry. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

‘TIME AND THE CONWAYS’: (left to right) Anna Baryshnikov, Charlotte Parry & Anna Camp. Photo: Jeremy Daniel

The post ‘Time and the Conways’: The price of frivolity appeared first on StageZine.