Monthly Archives: August 2010

ATHOL FUGARD BERATE: PLAYWRITING “NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE” · Aug 31st

(Dalya Alberge’s interview appeared in the Guardian, 8/30.)

Today's dramatists are failing to confront issues of injustice, writing instead "for attention spans of 10 minutes between adverts", leading political playwright Athol Fugard has said.

Fugard was a courageous dramatic voice throughout the apartheid era in his native South Africa, enduring censorship, police surveillance, phone-tapping and raids. He was the first to put black and white actors together on the South African stage.

via www.guardian.co.uk

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‘NEW YORKER’ THEATRE LISTINGS, 9/6 PLAYDECK · Aug 30th

Openings and Previews

 

Event: Bottom of the World

Venue: Atlantic Stage Two

Atlantic Theatre Company presents the première of a play by Lucy Thurber . . .

 

Event: Gone Fission

Venue: Various locations-generic/no phone #

Theatre for the New City’s Street Theatre Company presents its thirty-fourth annual . . .

 

Event: HOWL! Arts Project 2010

Venue: Various locations-generic/no phone #

The annual arts festival includes a production of Marc Blitzstein’s 1937 musical . . .

 

Event: It Must Be Him

Venue: Peter J. Sharp Theatre

A comedy by Kenny Solms, about a washed-up variety-show writer who tries . . .

 

Event: Me, Myself & I

Venue: Playwrights Horizons

Edward Albee’s new play, an absurdist comedy about twin brothers who are . . .

 

Event: Mrs. Warren’s Profession

Venue: American Airlines Theatre

Cherry Jones and Sally Hawkins star in the George Bernard Shaw play . . .

 

Event: New York Clown Theatre Festival

Venue: The Brick

The annual festival returns to Williamsburg, kicking off with a parade from . . .

 

Event: underneathmybed

Venue: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

The Rattlestick presents a drama by Florencia Lozano, about an Argentinean family . . .

 

Event: Vision Disturbance

Venue: Abrons Arts Center Henry Street Settlement

Richard Maxwell directs a play by Christina Masciotti, about a Greek immigrant . . .

 

via www.newyorker.com

 

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IONESCO: ‘THE CHAIRS’ IN BATH, ENGLAND (REVIEW) · Aug 30th

(Elisabeth Mahoney’s article appeared in the Guardian, 8/28.)

An elderly couple sit, static and wan, under a single dim bulb and a tangle of mismatched chairs suspended at ceiling height. They have been married, they say, for 75 years and gather together each night in their isolated house on a lonely island to pass the time by telling stories. The Old Woman pleads for these ("Every night, I come to it fresh"), while the Old Man rails against their well-worn themes. "I'm sick to death of Tudor history," he complains.

via www.guardian.co.uk

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BOOK: JOHN SIMON ON MILAN KUNDERA’S ‘ENCOUNTER’ · Aug 29th

(Simon’s review appeared in The New York Times, 8/28.)

The Czech novelist Milan ­Kundera’s new essayistic book, “Encounter,” his fourth, is alternatingly elegiac and celebratory. An émigré from the Communist horror of what was then Czechoslovakia, he settled in Paris and proceeded to write in French. But he discovered in France “the sense that we have come to the era of post-art, in a world where art is dying because the need for art, the sensitivity and the love for it, is dying.” Still, there remain the particular artists whom Kundera celebrates — novelists, poets, composers, painters — who keep beauty alive. There are 26 essays, some of only a couple of pages, some rather longer. Let us examine a characteristic one, “What Will Be Left of You, Bertolt?”

via www.nytimes.com

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AGATHA CHRISTIE: ‘MOUSETRAP’ ENDING REVEALED BY WIKIPEDIA · Aug 29th

(Paul Bignell’s and Matthew Bell’s article appeared in the Independent, 8/29.)

First WikiLeaks stood accused of unnecessarily revealing closely guarded secrets. Now it's Wikipedia's turn. The online encyclopaedia is refusing to yield to criticism from Agatha Christie's family for revealing the ending of The Mousetrap, the world's longest-running play.

via www.independent.co.uk

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MARVIN HAMLISCH AND THE PASADENA POPS + ‘THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG’ · Aug 28th

(David Ng’s article appeared in the Los Angeles Time, 8/27.)

 [Updated at 3:05 p.m.] Marvin Hamlisch, the celebrated Oscar-, Tony- and Emmy-winning composer, has written some of the most memorable show tunes and movie scores of the last 40 years. Starting next summer, he'll bring his considerable talent to local audiences when he takes on the top artistic position at the Pasadena Pops.

via latimesblogs.latimes.com

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‘OPERATION GREENFIELD’–FROM LITTLE BULB–IN EDINBURGH (REVIEW) · Aug 28th

(Lyn Gardner’s article appeared 8/27 in the Guardian.)

In the beginning there was chaos, and then there was Christmas. That's the kind of logic behind this glorious, daft and dippy musical. It's the latest show from Little Bulb, whom you may remember from their debut show Crocosmia, a delicate tale of Battenburg cake and loss told by siblings whose parents had died, or their epic folk musical, Sporadical. This is a company so recklessly talented you want to hug them and keep them safe in case they spoil. Some may suspect that they are getting away on sheer charm, but their musicianship is superb, and their ability to conjure the pains of youth uncanny.

via www.guardian.co.uk

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‘HARLEKIN’ FROM THE RUSSIAN COMPANY DEREVO · Aug 27th

(Lyn Gardner’s review appeared 8/26 in the Guardian.)

Once upon a time, the marvellous Russian company Derevo gave us Once, a heartless fairytale of moonbeams and moonshine. This latest piece from Anton Adasinsky and his company, who have previously wowed Edinburgh with shows such as Ketzel and La Divina Commedia, feels very much like the offspring of Once. It, too, is touched by moon madness and thwarted love, and it is a reminder that there are no lasting happy-ever-afters. Whimsy is always cut with despair, Romeo woos but fails to win his Juliet, the tears of the clown never dry up, and the great tyrannical puppet master in the sky still pulls the strings, however much you try to escape him.

via www.guardian.co.uk

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