Articles

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You're going to die: Susan Giddings as the Doctor and Robb Hutter as King Berenger. (Photo by Johanna Austin, courtesy IRC)

Fringe 2015: Idiopathic Ridiculopathy's 'Exit the King'

An excruciating exit

Even though playwright Eugène Ionesco is considered the father of absurd comedy, his Exit the King is terrifying.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 2 minute read
A dominant silence.  (Photos by Jan Versweyveld, courtesy Toneelgroep Amsterdam)

Fringe 2015: 'After the Rehearsal/Persona'

The fantasy of film translated to the reality of the stage

Bergman’s oeuvre translated to the stage reconnects us to our early infatuation with the filmmaker and makes us question what he’s saying in a new way.
Naomi Orwin

Naomi Orwin

Articles 5 minute read
The effect of Dylan’s ’65 Newport set was, well, electric. (Photo of Dylan in Toronto in 1980 by Jean-Luc via Creative Commons/Flickr)

Elijah Wald's 'Dylan Goes Electric!'

Electric Bob

Dylan made it okay to like rock ’n’ roll. He carried the intellectual endorsements to make those who’d disparaged or abandoned rock regard it anew. And he had the genius to make those still-popping fingers rethink rock’s capabilities.
Bob Levin

Bob Levin

Articles 5 minute read
The long trip home from war: Gunn and Leonard (Photo by Ken Howard)

Jennifer Higdon’s 'Cold Mountain'

A chilly mountain

The world premiere of Jennifer Higdon's first opera, Cold Mountain, has many fine elements but misses greatness.
Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Articles 4 minute read
All this, my boy, could be yours: Fredrick and Hobbs (Photo by Mark Garvin)

Fringe 2015: 1812 Production's 'Shoplifters'

Tackling a meaty subject gingerly

Do we have to pay for what we get in life? Or can we just go out and grab what we want without consequences? Shoplifters tackles these questions but doesn’t really come up with answers.
Naomi Orwin

Naomi Orwin

Articles 4 minute read
Devolving to name-calling: Buckley and Vidal. (Photo by ABC Photo Archives - © 2010 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.)

'Best of Enemies': The Buckley-Vidal debates of 1968

The documentary Best of Enemies revisits 1968’s game-changing TV debate between two cultural titans, William F. Buckley Jr. and Gore Vidal.

Carol Rocamora

Articles 3 minute read
Kiana takes flight: the author's daughter on her way to the Berklee summer program.

Help! My daughter is a music major!

Despite my best efforts to guide her, my daughter's love for music wore me down. Now I'm hoping for the best.
Maria Thompson Corley

Maria Thompson Corley

Articles 4 minute read
Schweinsbraten mit Kartoffelknödel (photo by Takeaway via Creative Commons/Wikimedia)

Why telling jokes is like writing music

In comparing the making of music to the making of a joke, I’m not saying that music ought to be funny. The main sense of a sense of humor is funniness, of course, but the best comedians handle all the humors.
Kile Smith

Kile Smith

Articles 5 minute read
One thing that won’t change: the majestic main staircase at the Central branch. (Photo by Gmonkey via Creative Commons/flickr)

Big changes at the Free Library of Philadelphia

Philadelphia's library, reinvented

Money from the William Penn Foundation, along with other public and private gifts, has enabled the library to undertake a big-picture initiative to increase flexibility and efficiency for current and future users in a project called Building Inspiration: 21st Century Libraries.

Pamela J. Forsythe

Articles 6 minute read
Edith Wharton, whose marriage, apparently, doesn't count.

Kate Bolick's 'Spinster'

The solipsistic spinster

Kate Bolick takes almost 300 pages to analyze her decision not to marry from every possible angle in Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own, while remaining oblivious to her level of privilege.
Judy Weightman

Judy Weightman

Articles 5 minute read