Persona Non Grata
Observe the ass … his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals. — Mark Twain, “Pudd’nhead Wilson” The Donkey Show Conceived by Randy Weiner. Directed by Diane Paulus and Randy Weiner. Presented by the American Repertory Theater at Zero Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA Presented by American Repertory Theater,…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx Veteran “Village Voice” theater critic Michael Feingold has written a good column on the tragic news, for some, that the Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, the organizations that jointly manage Broadway’s annual Tony Awards, have decided to remove the first-night theater press from the ranks of Tony voters. Some hand-wringers…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx The ruckus kicked up by Yale University Press’s refusal to include cartoons offensive to some Muslims in a forthcoming book called “The Cartoons that Shook the World” underlines the ironic difference between offensive words and images. (Perhaps Yale U Press should re-title the censored version of the book “The Cartoons That Only…
Read MoreThe Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare. Directed by Steve Maler. Presented by Commonwealth Shakespeare Company at the Boston Common Parkman Bandstand, through August 16. Reviewed by Bill Marx Shakespeare can be punished by his own success. In “The Comedy of Errors” he juggles two sets of identical twins on stage with the dizzying aplomb…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx Kate Warner, the New Rep’s new Artistic Director, wants to strike a new balance. WGBH’s Jared Bowen is more of a publicist/fan than a journalist, but his recent “Greater Boston” interview with Kate Warner, the new Artistic Director of the New Repertory Theatre, gives the honcho a chance to talk about some…
Read MoreBy Bill Marx If the age turns away from the theater, in which it is no longer interested, that is because the theater has ceased to represent it. It no longer hopes to be provided by the theater with myths on which it can sustain itself. –- Antonin Artaud
Read MoreSometimes I wonder if Euripides saw the very texture of reality as ironic. Saw the gods in their interactions with human beings as essentially playing. A frightening idea. But at least it entails the assumption that Euripides himself was not playing. Anne Carson, in her introduction to her translation of Euripides’ “Orestes” in “An Oresteia.”…
Read MoreBrazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues — a master at evoking the humor and pathos of out-of-control libidos. Life As It Is: Selected Stories By Nelson Rodrigues. Translated from the Portuguese by Alex Ladd. Host Publications, 314 pages Reviewed by Bill Marx No nonsense British philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously described man’s life as it is as “solitary,…
Read MoreCommedia dell’arte performers doing their thing in the HTC world premiere production of “The Miracle at Naples.” The Miracle at Naples, a new comedy by David Grimm. Directed by Peter DuBois. Presented by the Huntington Theatre Company at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, through May 9, 2009. Reviewed by…
Read MoreOne of the late John Updike’s most impressive critical strengths is that he was one of the few high profile reviewers who regularly commented, with perception and equanimity, on fiction in translation.
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