3 out of 5 stars

"Hate Radio" chillingly portrays how a radio station normalized the brutality of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Imagine on-air hosts cheerleading the mass targeting, slaughter and dismemberment of members of a rival ethnicity group as casually as delivering traffic reports or the weather. Milo Rau's 2011 play now also resonates disturbingly with the conversational vitriol of some current American podcasts and news-format TV. As theater, though, the production is oddly distancing, sometimes even deadening: The radio show unfolds within a glass-enclosed studio as the audience hears the French dialogue through headsets while reading supertitled translations, muting the emotional impact. – Adam Z. Horvath

At St. Ann's Warehouse, through Feb. 28, 2026; stannswarehouse.org. Photo credit (bottom picture): Zeno Graton. (Review date: Feb. 20, 2026)