Jim Kates

Book Review: “The Barcelona Brothers” — A Nasty Piece of Spanish Noir

August 22, 2012
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International noir novels no longer revolve around exotic police procedurals or gimmicky detective stories. They aim to pound readers into the pavement.

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Theater Review: A Sweet and Contagious “Present Laughter”

August 18, 2012
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Actor Jack Koenig never flags in the Peterborough Players production of “Present Laughter,” and around him in his London studio-flat swirls a churning world of impertinent employees and past and present loves that would do Kaufman and Hart proud.

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Theater Review: “The Admirable Crichton” Entertains Via a Sprightly Stiff Upper Lip

August 4, 2012
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“The Admirable Crichton” premiered in 1902, but the Peterborough Players bring this comedy about class division off admirably — as classy theater, not anthropology.

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Theater Review: A Madcap “39 Steps”

July 21, 2012
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Patrick Barlow’s script and Chuck Morey’s direction of the Peterborough Players production turn “The 39 Steps” into a madcap, Marx-Brothers-style of zaniness barreling along at farce-speed until the very last moments.

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Theater Review: “I Do! I Do!”— Predictable Musical Sentimentality

July 7, 2012
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You leave the matrimonial musical “I Do! I Do!” humming its banalities.

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Fuse Theater Review: A Lame “Auld Lang Syne”

June 23, 2012
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Auld Lang Syne is the kind of poorly made play that withholds important and obvious elements of development in order to score artificial dramatic points late in the action.

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Poetry Review: Yves Bonnefoy — A Provocative “Second Simplicity”

March 13, 2012
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This handsome edition of Yves Bonnefoy’s recent poetry and prose in English translation is a stunning presentation of a major poet.

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Book Review: Mahmoud Darwish — Palestinian Poet of Heritage and Exile

December 14, 2011
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Mahmoud Darwish, who died in 2008 at the age of sixty-seven, was best and heroically known for his complex perspective on political and spiritual borders — as both a poet and a spokesman for his Palestinian people.

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Theater Review: “The Lady With All the Answers” Makes for Predictable Drama

September 15, 2011
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“The Lady With All the Answers” presents the columnist Ann Landers as a person who just might write a letter to Ann herself. Her faith in herself and her work is unquestioned, even as her own life takes a bump or two. Well, really, only one bump.

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Theater Review: A Bright and Literate Version of the Darkly Comic “Measure for Measure”

September 1, 2011
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Director Gus Kikkonen and cast come up with a bright, literate presentation of William Shakespeare’s play “Measure for Measure,” a potentially dark comedy pregnant with power.

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