It is the loss of memories and the meaning of memory that dominate, generating speculations that draw the reader into and through Maria Stepanova’s argument and interpretations.
Jim Kates
Poetry Review: Paul Celan — The Anguish of Writing in a “Damaged” Tongue
Poet Paul Celan has come to embody in person and in print the agonies of a half century of European culture.
Poetry Review: Henri Cole’s “Blizzard” — Writing as an Act of Revenge
In Henri Cole’s best poems, the outside and the inside interpenetrate and merge.
Poetry and Prose Review: Joseph Brodsky — Revisiting an Icon
For a generation of Russians, Joseph Brodsky was the poet, almost a code-word in the discourse of the intelligentsia, like Nabokov.
Poetry Review: “The Mother House” — Poems with the Demeanor of Nuns
In these poems, contemplation, serenity, and service are the order of the day.
Theater Review: “Robert Frost: This Verse Business” — Friendly to a Fault
The overall effect is one of a genial, superficial club lecture on reading and writing poetry, punctuated by Frost’s Greatest Hits.
Theater Review: “Rose” — A Well-Acted Excursion in Storytelling
Carolyn Michel’s Rose is the sociable stranger on the bus who tempts you to miss your stop so you can hear her out to the end.
Theater Review: “Dumas’ Camille ” — A Thickly Layered, But Intimate, Evening
Dumas’ Camille is nothing if not ambitious. Such complexity is seldom found on a summer stage.
Theater Review: “She Loves Me” — Amiably Unambitious
This review, like the opening night of She Loves Me, is dedicated to the life and work of the late producer Harold Prince.
Theater Review: “Gertrude Stein and a Companion” — A Satisfying Dramatic Fusion
In two short acts, playwright Win Wells depicts not so much a relationship as a fusion, a merging of identities into one single, complex personality.