We don’t live in the era of harebrained schemes. We live in the era of venture capitalism and innovative ideas and TED talks. So in this milieu of “anything is possible” — an idea that has persisted despite cries of “The economy! The death of American hegemony! Obesity!” — it Read More…
Well, BareStage Productions’ musical comedy “Death and Other Hobbies” didn’t make me want to off myself, so that’s good. It focuses on Corbin Vickers (Alexander Kownatzki), who throws a party for his eccentric cast of friends and family before committing suicide. This soon unravels into a murder mystery party when Read More…
Writing a review of “Einstein on the Beach” is a profound challenge. The opera is hailed as one of the crowning artistic achievements of the 20th century and remains among the most important contributors to modern performance culture. And yet, despite the glitz and glamor surrounding the opera, the endless Read More…
There are a few reasons that the man seated next to me may have dozed off midway through Wednesday night’s performance of “An Iliad” at the Berkeley Rep. For one, it was the dead middle of the work week. For another, the average American’s attention span is shrinking. And third, Read More…
With the presidential election only a few weeks away, it’s easy to see the battle between Romney and Obama becoming increasingly bitter, ruthless or, frankly, absurd. Forget about all of that. These boys are but docile lambs, feeble filibusters and infirmed old grannies compared to the badassery that is Andrew Read More…
One was the face of Nature … A lifeless lump, unfashion’d and unframed / Of jarring seeds, and justly Chaos named,” says Ovid in the introduction to his infamous poem “Metamorphoses.” Completed in the year A.D. 8 and composed of more than 20 episodes of Greek mythology, “chaos” would be Read More…
How could one little man cause such universal grief and anguish? More importantly, why would he?” These stimulating questions blossomed into the 1990 musical “Assassins,” a spectacle that lures its audience into a world suspended in time and space, alternating between fiction and history to create a “dreamlike vaudeville” in Read More…
Imagine striding along the grand-rue of a tranquil French village, whereupon you suddenly cross paths with an agitated, stampeding rhinoceros trampling everything in its way. What would you think? In essence, this is the question asked by Eugene Ionesco in the first act of his supremely absurdist play “Rhinoceros,” performed Read More…
The play opens in a hospital waiting room. The setting is 1981 New York City. A strange new disease has begun to spread within the city’s gay community. Forty-one cases have been reported. One by one, young and healthy men are dying, but no one knows the cause. The symptoms Read More…
Imagine with me, if you will, a common scenario. There’s a man and a wife. They’ve been together for a while. The heat they once shared has all but died out. Instead of any romance, they just have rows, and in place of any affection, there’s just stale, monotonous boredom. Read More…
