Lily Houghton’s new play “Of the woman came the beginning of sin and through her we all die” starts strong with a promising premise and a talented cast. Unfortunately, it takes a problematic turn halfway through and drives on for far too long. As a thesis, this sounds harsh and categorical, which is why I chose to get […]
Month: October 2019
Painting the Roses Black: A Playdate Review of “Painted Alice”
Tortured artists are an insufferable bunch. As partners they tend to drag you down with them. As characters, though, they can be lots of fun to watch—when you’re not on the receiving end of the drama. Case in point: “Painted Alice: The Musical,” running through November 9 at the Plaxall Gallery in Astoria. I’ve seen […]
“Terra Firma”: A Platform at the End of the World
Micronations hold a perennial fascination for students of the human condition. On the one hand, they seem to offer a ready model of the commonwealth on an individual scale, a Leviathan shrunk down to human dimensions. On the other, they represent the possibility of radical self-determination. And what could be more attractive in a world […]
Why?
The product of over six decades of fruitful collaboration, Why? by legendary English director Peter Brook and French playwright Marie-Hélène Estienne is many things: a fanciful reimagining of the birth of theatre from the spirit of boredom, a playful comparison of the methods of Stanislavsky and his lesser-known but equally influential contemporary Vsevolod Meyerhold, a […]
Theatrical Investigations: A Review of ‘Ludwig and Bertie’
‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.’ A famously pregnant quote that, like much of Wittgenstein, defies easy interpretation, idiomatic translation. Though perhaps it could best be rendered as a variation on the old parental saw: ‘If you can’t say anything meaningful, don’t say anything at all.’ I mention it not only because […]