SOURCE: Isherwood, Charles. “Review of King John.” Variety 377, no. 12 (7 February 2000): 64.

In the following review, Isherwood praises Karin Coonrod's Theatre for a New Audience production of King John for its clarity of direction, but notes that the production lacked conceptual inspiration.

King John is one of Shakespeare's least admired history plays, and as you watch its meandering, unfocused plot unfold in fits and starts, it's pretty easy to see why. It's also, naturally enough, rarely staged, so Shakespeare completists may want to check out the Theater for a New Audience production Off Broadway, directed with admirable clarity if no particular conceptual inspiration by Karin Coonrod.

The title character hardly seems to deserve a play, let alone a country. Although the plot doggedly details his fight to retain the English crown, you get the feeling this diffident ruler wouldn't know what to do with it if he managed to secure...