Bill Marx
Jack London was rather like Norman Mailer in that he thought of himself, and tried to write like, a boxer who happened to write. They were both often full of shit, but that’s the perspective they tried to convey.
Read MoreYes, the confusion of my ideas on the subject of death was such that I sometimes wondered, believe me or not, if it wasn’t a state of being even worse than life. –- Samuel Beckett, “Molloy” Fragments. Texts by Samuel Beckett (Rough for Theatre 1, Rockaby, Act Without Words II, Come and Go, and Neither).…
Read MoreGerman author Ernst Weiss’s nightmarish vision of science gone mad in his 1931 novel Georg Letham is not rote Freudian; it is firmly in the social critique/ apocalyptic Darwinian mode.
Read MoreNow that dramatist Neil LaBute’s scripts are being produced on Broadway he has fanned the earlier whiffs of amorality in his work away. The obscene language and provocative hooks remain, but those are not a bar to popular success (think of David Mamet).
Read MoreDramatist Theresa Rebeck’s updated version of Ibsen’s play strengthens one key aspect of A Doll’s House—its picture of savage incomprehension between man and woman, which drives Ibsen’s call for independence and self-respect in a society that rewards complacency, greed, and childish role-playing. DollHouse by Theresa Rebeck. Based on A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen. Directed…
Read MoreThough it ends on an image of uneasy forgiveness, Ajax revolves around a worm hole of irrationality – Athena takes extreme actions and makes uncompromising demands but still insists on the “balance” of the gods
Read MoreAn exciting month, and that isn’t hyperbole. A couple of North American premieres: a futuristic opera from MIT’s Tod Machover and poet Robert Pinsky and a drama tweaking The New Testament from Howard Brenton. Toss in iconic director Peter Brook staging Beckett, F. Murray Abraham as Shylock, and Car Talk:The Musical and you are talking about taking out the smelling salts
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Arts Commentary: What Do We Talk about When We Talk about Cultural Dialogue
An exchange about what meaningful online conversation about the arts and humanities entails. What kind of cultural dialogue would best serve the purpose of the Mass Cultural Council? To focus on the creativity of artists? Or to encourage critical thinking?
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