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German 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 MoreIn their understandable haste to cash in on the success of the Twilight series, director Catherine Hardwicke and writer David Johnson threw attractive people on a set without bothering to come up with a plot that makes them worth watching. Red Riding Hood. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. The cast includes Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman, Billy…
Read MoreBare chested and sweating up a storm, singer Gavin Creel as Prometheus makes for a rock rebel with lots of snarly attitude, defying Zeus’s tyranny by flexing his abs.
Now 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 MoreThough unquestionably didactic, Skip Schiel’s images are also haunting glimpses of the perilous nature of life in Gaza. The photographs never feel invasive or forced; they simply capture moments of intimate truth between photographer and subject.
Read MoreIn The Necessity of Theater, author Paul Woodruff makes way for wisdom as theater’s final gift. In his view, theater’s wisdom lies in its use of the mask, and that mask is the sine qua non of meaning. The mask must conceal, if only to reveal. The Necessity of Theater: The Art of Watching…
Read MoreThe Masterworks Chorale sang better than I had ever heard them; perhaps they felt the sense of occasion—this was a piece that meant a great deal to Mr. Lannom, whose thoughts on the composition were featured in the program booklet. By Susan Miron Antonin Dvorák’s “Stabat Mater,” Op. 58, is a classic example of a…
Read MoreI cite the repertoire only to give you a sense of the breadth of the material Jason Moran and Fred Hersch built on. The glory of the evening was the complete integration of the two pianists’ musical thought.
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 MoreSuccess assured? Critics and others discuss whether the MFA’s new wing, The Art of the Americas, lives up to the hype generated by the opening in the latest Judicial Review.
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