Theater
“My condition was like that of a man who has fired a gun at people he dislikes, and finds these same people coming and giving three cheers for him: inadvertently he had been firing loaves of bread. – Bertolt Brecht, “Drums in the Night’s Success With the Bourgeoisie” By Bill Marx Granted, some of Brecht’s…
Read MoreAs a holiday concert experience, however, the show, ably performed by the SpeakEasy cast, amuses and induces toe-tapping. For those grumpy about sentimental Xmas entertainment, “Striking 12” delivers cheer, uplift, and plenty of musical talent while remaining blissfully devoid of the usual saccharine, holiday-show sentimentality. Striking 12. Book and Lyrics by Brendan Milburn, Rachel Sheinkin,…
Read MoreThe set-up sounds promising, a look back at a time of furious intellectual and artistic ferment, especially with its demand for art that challenges rather than caters to conventional tastes, creativity that revels in distortion, the surreal, the political, and the visceral. The Blue Flower. Music, Lyrics, and Script and Videography by Jim Bauer. Artwork,…
Read MoreRoyal National Theatre Director Nicholas Hytner is determined to make the drama as relevant to our own times as to the Bard’s. The setting is a somewhat flimsy, gray-walled salon. Theatrical apparatuses are visible: a klieg light here, a fresnel there. Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Staged by the Royal National Theatre, London, England. Taped by…
Read MoreWith gift season comes the existential quandary: What to give the culture lovers on your list? This season the writers for The Arts Fuse waylay the crisis by recommending items that will delight the heart and stimulate the mind. Please feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments section. Keep in mind that…
Read MoreI won’t even try to tell you what the play was all about—I don’t think I fully understood myself. But I can tell you this much: the play works; it gives the actors a number of situations rich in meaning and emotion to explore. And explore they do. Silence by Moira Buffini. Directed by SerahRose…
Read MoreI figure you know where the killer Scrooges are, so this month I look for alternatives to the usual holiday fare. The American Repertory Theater and GAN-e-meed Theatre Project are serving up something different, and SpeakEasy Stage Company says it has found “hip” holiday fare. I have heard that one before, but you never know.…
Read MoreTribes makes us privy to the dynamics of a twenty-first-century, secular, Jewish family in a series of fast-paced scenes that leave few holds barred. The parents—middle-class, middle-aged, hyper-verbal intellectuals—are trying to cope with the fact that their three adult children have returned to inhabit the nest. By Helen Epstein. When I first wrote London friends…
Read MoreYears (or would that be decades?) ago, editors had the self-respect to be embarrassed by critical incompetence, perhaps because there was the assumption that knowledgeable people were reading the paper. Those discriminating readers are long gone from the marginalized arts section of The Boston Globe . . . By Bill Marx I haven’t seen the…
Read MoreHoliday season is kicking in, which means it becomes harder to find theater that doesn’t set out to warm your heart and melt your mind. Though a Santaland Diary or two remains, the vogue for cynical Xmas shows has run its course. Still, all is not lost when you can still find such extraordinary family…
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