Martin Schneider writes:

Last Friday, I saw Vieux Carré by Tennessee Williams at the Pearl Theatre on 8th Street. Hilton Als gave the show a good review in the June 8 issue. I recommend the show, but it's only playing for a few more days (through June 14), so make haste!

Anyone who has spent much time in the East Village will know the Pearl. It's located on the old site of the Theatre 80 St. Marks, where I dimly remember seeing a Godard double-feature before it stopped showing classic movies around 1993.

This week marks the last week of the phenomenally fruitful artistic directorship of Shepard Sobel, as well as the last week of performances in the East Village space; they are moving to the New York City Center in midtown. It's sad news for people who like the good things in life to stay the way they are.

The Pearl is my favorite theater company in New York. It was (and, one expects, will remain) the quintessential repertory theater in New York, mounting well-acted "straight" (that is, interpretation-free) productions of classic plays ranging from Shakespeare to Ionesco and beyond. I saw plays there by worthwhile playwrights of yore you don't see produced often: Lessing, Calderón de la Barca, Goldoni.

The first play I ever saw there was Shakespeare's Cymbeline, in 1996. To this day it remains one of the freshest productions of Shakespeare I can recall, a feat accomplished on a small stage with a bare set.

Over the years I saw probably about 25 productions, which gave me a chance to get to know the versatile company. I won't soon forget names like Joanne Camp, Rachel Botchan, Celeste Ciulla, Carol Schultz, Arnie Burton, Robin Leslie Brown, Hope Chernov (this is a company where the woman seem to get the choicest roles), Arnie Burton, Dan Dailey, Robert Hock, Dominic Cuskern, Sean McNall, John Wylie, Edward Seamon. I'm grateful to all of the above as well as everyone else who helped with the productions, for the pleasures they afforded me over the years.

I'm confident the Pearl will prosper 40 streets north, but I'm still sad that I won't again see their productions off of St. Marks Place. I'm sure I'll continue to see their productions (Shaw's Misalliance next year looks tasty).

Update: In the lobby of the Pearl hangs a framed drawing cut out from the pages of The New Yorker. It appeared in the September 19, 1994, issue. Here it is (click to enlarge):