“Yiddish is above all a language of yearning, a language of anxiety.”
Theater Review: “American Moor” — Lasting Impressions
American Moor sheds considerable insight into the tension between actor vs. director, into the power play between the two, and who will ultimately prevail.
Theater News: IRNE@23 — Boisterous Irreverence
The IRNE event did what it has done for decades: cast a warm glow on a vibrant local theater scene and those who are dedicated to entertain, astonish, and inspire.
Arts Remembrance: Poet W. S. Merwin — An Appreciation
W.S. Merwin remained politically as well as artistically motivated all his life, often proclaiming the vital importance of activism.
Theater Review: “An Inspector Calls” — Upper Class Downfall
J. B. Priestly’s shallow characterizations keep his vision of moneyed skullduggery mundane rather than monstrous.
Theater Review: “The Little Foxes” — American Greed Triumphant
The Lyric Stage Company’s The Little Foxes is taut, tense, and eerily reflective of our own uneasy, pernicious times.
Visual Arts Review: “Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico” — Casting a Coolly Warm Eye on Life and Death
In Garciela Iturbide’s photographs, the living and the dying are often joined at the (exposed) skeletal hip.
Arts Remembrance: Poet Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver’s poetic vision reaches back to the American transcendentalists: it encourages us, by demanding that we pay attention to our now threatened natural world, to find a moral compass.
Book Review: Diane Williams, Flash Fiction, and the Shrinking Short Story
Diane Williams’s brusque vision of a perverse life force mesmerizes.
Poetry Review: Leonard Cohen’s “The Flame” — The Errant Canadian Comes Home
Leonard Cohen reinforces this dedication to lyricism with striking humility in his final book.