Robert Israel

Theater Review: “The Art of Burning” — Bonfire of the Vanities

January 29, 2023
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The domestic demolition in Kate Snodgrass’s script is served au flambé.

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Theater Review: “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” — A Stirring Dramatic Experience

October 25, 2022
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Despite some missteps and miscasting bumps along the way, this staging faithfully captures playwright August Wilson’s searing poetic vision.

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Theater Interview: Performer Bill Irwin – Channeling Samuel Beckett

October 21, 2022
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“Samuel Beckett’s work speaks to me because he’s a very visceral writer. And, because I have training as a clown, I think of him as a natural clown.”

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Book Review: Steve Stern’s “Village Idiot” — Painted into a Corner

September 6, 2022
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Steve Stern’s novel about the Jewish expressionist painter Chaim Soutine is more informative than it is engaging.

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Poetry Commentary: Native American Poet and Activist Joy Harjo at Tanglewood — A Disappointment

August 4, 2022
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Many have surrendered to Joy Harjo’s undeniable shamanistic charms and classify her as a national treasure.

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Theater Review: “Hurricane Diane” — A Whimper Rather than a Whirlwind

September 4, 2021
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Madeleine George’s uneven 90-minte one-act comedy/drama borrows heavily on Greek mythology to zip up the misadventures of a cluster of suburban women in New Jersey,

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Theater Interview: Tennessee Williams and Censorship

September 2, 2021
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“A lot of censorship in America has to do with the impulse to shut down what women have to say, literally hanging and burning them as witches to shut them up.”

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Book Review: A Valuable Reminder of Lorraine Hansberry’s “Radical Vision”

April 25, 2021
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In the process of exploring the ideas that shaped Lorraine Hansberry’s understanding of her art and the world, the volume confirms the writer’s relevance during these troubled but potentially transformative times.

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Book Review: “Cheese, Wine, and Bread” — On the Menu, Confession and Fermentation

April 21, 2021
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The current rage for inserting the personal/confessional in everything from cookbooks to literary criticism can go too far.

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Book Review: John Edgar Wideman — Masterful Stories that Bear the Weight of Reality

April 17, 2021
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A singular muscularity infuses these short stories, a confidence that astonishes.

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