In The Liar, the title character wonders whether, given his disposition, he should become a politician. But, if David Ives’ version of Pierre Corneille’s 1644 verse play may benefit from new relevance (what I call the Trump Effect), its main strength lies not in its timeliness or plot but the subversive whimsy of its language.
Archives for January 26, 2017
American Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake at The Kennedy Center (review)
As I walked up the steps into Kennedy Center’s Opera House for the season’s opening of American Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake, my heart was fluttering as if for a first love. As indeed it was; classical ballet was my earliest passion. No other performance art form promises such a sweet anti-gravitational lift. How we need […]
Holly Twyford leads a powerful cast in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Ford’s Theatre (review)
Jean-Paul Sartre said that Hell is other people, but in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? we look to ourselves to find Hell, horrifying and intimate.
Tom Stoppard’s Hard Problem. Insights from the director and playwright
Tom Stoppard’s newest play The Hard Problem refers to philosopher David Chalmer’s “hard problem” of how to explain consciousness. Science can explain how our brains perceive sensations like pain, but not why we feel emotions like sadness. How do we explain our consciousness? Why are humans different from a monkey or a machine? The play’s protagonist, […]
Lumina Studio’s adapted LEAR (review)
Lumina Studio Theatre packs LEAR with high-concept projections and mute scenes, but does best when they give their actors room to play. Director/Assistant Director David Minton’s adaptation begins with a wordless scene wherein Lear (John O’Connor) trades a duck mask with a mysterious figure with a shopping cart to get a crown. This figure returns wearing […]