Great playwrights create some less than great works in their career. Even though I admire many works by Arthur Miller (“A View From the Bridge” is in my top ten plays of all time) I had never heard of “The Archbishop’s Ceiling.” I am glad I had the chance to see it, but it remains in the lower echelon of his scripts.

Set in an unnamed Eastern European country during the cold war it happily plays the spy game as no one knows quite who to trust. The plot of a state stolen manuscript and questions of defection are played round and round. Arthur Miller’s voice is clearly here and political games are deftly handled. He uses an unfortunate and unsatisfying Chekhov’s gun trope and ultimately the middle of the script sags noticeably. But I am happy to add an additional viewing of a Miller script to my list.

While I was particularly captivated by the performance of Sigmund the writer by Michael Meth, all the performers did yeoman’s work and should be referenced – Levi Morgan, Kristin Gehling, Jon Spano, and Jessica Carollo. Director Barnaby Edwards did a fine job directing.

I am glad to find Regeneration Theatre who performs lesser known works (www.regenerationtheatre.org). I look forward to their performance of “The Shadow Box” next winter. It is a script I am more familiar with.

As always you can find more at http://www.walterthinnes.com and on Twitter @walterthinnes

#ATOBTTR update – Hey Cincinnati Reds, take a knee. You only split instead of swept the series with the Brewers. Time to up your game against the Cubs next. But take one more day off today to catch your breath. Memorials Day weekend brings true summer baseball and it is time to up your game before we get to trade deadine day. We’ll talk about that later.