Neighbor Stefanie Zadravec's "The Electric Baby" Reviewed By NYT

Local playwright Stefanie Zadravec received accolades from The New York Times Michael Sommers last week for her latest work, The Electric Baby. Sommers writes:

The imperceptible magic that pervades human existence and the power of myth to assuage sorrow are invoked by the playwright Stefanie Zadravec as she entwines the lives of strangers in “The Electric Baby,” a gently touching new drama at the Two River Theater Company in Red Bank…

A mix of expressionism and magical realism, “The Electric Baby” does not explain the mysteries that it evokes. But who can account for the odd ways in which people meet and affect the existence of others? The compassion in Ms. Zadravec’s writing is obvious even when her story tends to be elusive in its details.

The New York Times isn’t the only publication taking notice of The Electric Baby, nor is this the first time Stefanie’s empathetic style has been lauded by the Times. Honey Brown Eyes was reviewed in 2011 by Eric Grode, who then called Stefanie a “promising young playwright” who “tackled a bruising subject”–in this case, life in Bosnia in the early 1990s–“and dared to approach it through her own, more humanistic aesthetic.”

The Electric Baby is at the Two River Theater Company until this Sunday, May 5 after which it moves to Chicago’s Rivendell Theatre Ensemble from May 16-June 22. For more information on Stefanie’s work, visit her website.

Photo via The New York Times