"What Alice Knew': The hunt for Jack the Ripper

Sex and the 19th-Century city

The James siblings— Henry, William, Alice— pursue Jack the Ripper through late Victorian London in a witty intellectual thriller that offers some uncomfortable truths about sex, violence and the city along the way. What Alice Knew: A Most Curious Tale of Henry James and Jack the Ripper. By Paula Marantz Cohen. Sourcebooks, 2010. 341 pages; paperback, $14.95. www.amazon.com.

Robert Zaller

Sep 10, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

Dorothy Parker beneath the surface

All that wit, all that pain

The more I blabbed about Dorothy Parker's wit, the more I realized that I knew very little about her life before and after the Algonquin Round Table. Was I ever in for some biographical surprises.

Patrick D. Hazard

Sep 10, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

"The Help' and "The Debt': Jessica Chastain's moment

Great teeth, great hair, and, well, you know the rest

Jessica Chastain has miles to go to match the force of Helen Mirren's mature persona. Until then, here's an actress beginning to stretch herself in two good movies aimed at very different audiences. The Help. A film written and directed by Tate Taylor, from the novel by Kathryn Stockett. For Philadelphia area showtimes, click here.

Reed Stevens

Sep 10, 2011 · Articles · 5 minute read

Rowan Joffé's remake of "Brighton Rock'

Catholics without Catholicism

Graham Greene's chilling 1938 novel, Brighton Rock, hinges on the passionate Catholicism of a cruelly violent teen gangster and his easily manipulated girlfriend. Without that powerful religious underpinning, the new film adaptation doesn't make much sense.

Jake Blumgart

Sep 10, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Max Frisch's "The Arsonists' (2nd review)

Rod Serling, where are you?

Contrary to its promotion as an “absurdist romp,” Max Frisch's The Arsonists is a moral play with several morals. It deserved better than this heavy-handed trivialization.

Gresham Riley

Sep 10, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Applied Mechanics' "Overseers' at Fringe Festival

Minding everyone else's business

Overseers concerns a revolt in a totalitarian society. Its creators at Applied Mechanics are themselves rebels against the tyranny of theatrical boundaries.

Jim Rutter

Sep 10, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read

Headlong Dance Theater's "Red Rovers'

None dare call it dance

In Red Rovers, Headlong Dance Theater once again comes up with a clever setup that leads nowhere. And would it kill them to do a little more dancing?

Merilyn Jackson

Sep 08, 2011 · Articles · 2 minute read

Luna Theater's "How to Disappear Completely' (2nd review)

You'll never get away

The British playwright Fin Kennedy's How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found is not so much a primer on vanishing as a meditation on the cruel impossibility of oblivion, especially in a virtual Internet world where things and people live forever.

Alaina Johns

Sep 06, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Poor Richard's "Opera a Day' at the Fringe (1st review)

Seven nights, seven operas (and just one problem)

Poor Richard's stripped-down productions of seven one-act operas present a good opportunity to sample an odd corner of the opera repertoire for $15 a ticket, if you can understand the words.

Tom Purdom

Sep 06, 2011 · Articles · 3 minute read

Pig Iron's "Twelfth Night' at Suzanne Roberts (1st review)

Pig Iron plays Shakespeare (and passes the pickled herring test)

This rollicking production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, an unusually mainstream choice for the customarily avant-garde Pig Iron, got a deservedly wild reception at this week's opening, from the pickled herring to the boisterous final dance.

Alaina Johns

Sep 06, 2011 · Articles · 4 minute read