Category Archives: Movies

NATIONAL THEATRE’S JULIUS CAESAR: THE JOHN WILKES BOOTH INTERPRETATION RETURNS

Julius Caesar opened Shakespeare’s new Globe Theatre in 1599. Having completed his history cycle, Shakespeare turned to a political drama set in the ancient past. History was fertile ground through which to make  political points about the issues of the day. Julius Caesar was to Rome as Elizabeth I was to England – an aging […]

March 23, 2018 – 11:42 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Movies, Politics, Quotations, Theater | Comments Off on NATIONAL THEATRE’S JULIUS CAESAR: THE JOHN WILKES BOOTH INTERPRETATION RETURNS

National Theatre Live: The Expressionist Hamlet

Lyndsay Turner’s Hamlet, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is strikingly different from other recent Hamlets. Rory Kinnear ‘s Hamlet directed by Nicholas Hytner, Kenneth Branagh’s 1996 self-directed Hamlet, and Greg Doran’s 2009 David Tennant Hamlet all evidenced the influence of John Barton’s magisterial elucidation of how Shakespeare’s language needed to be played. Barton insisted on a detailed […]

March 9, 2018 – 11:08 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Movies, Quotations, Theater, Theology, Uncategorized | Comments Off on National Theatre Live: The Expressionist Hamlet

LADY BIRD: A TREE GROWS IN SACRAMENTO

The story was called the “best of the year” by the New York Times The author was hailed as a “fresh, original, finished talent” who tells a story about a young girl’s “coming of age”, “growing up and the beginning of wisdom,” “no unsavory detail” is omitted in a tale that has “light and air […]

December 7, 2017 – 7:08 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Movies, Quotations | Comments Off on LADY BIRD: A TREE GROWS IN SACRAMENTO

TIDEWATER STAGE’S THE 39 STEPS: A HILARIOUS HOMAGE

“Spoof’ was originally a late 19th century drinking game involving coins. By the late 1950s the term began to be used to describe a skit or “send-up” of a popular literary or cultural genre. By the late 1970s “spoof” had engendered a theatrical movement known as the “Theatre of the Ridiculous”, itself a send up […]

June 18, 2017 – 8:29 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Movies, Music, Theater | Comments Off on TIDEWATER STAGE’S THE 39 STEPS: A HILARIOUS HOMAGE

LYRIC OPERA’S MAGIC FLUTE: A Metatheatrical Spectacular

Reviewing an 1879 production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the anonymous Chicago Tribune critic noted, “it would be absurd to try to explain the plot…. All sorts of explanations have been attempted but, if anyone ever really knew what it meant, he died before he said anything about it. It is a hodge-podge, nonsense, and […]

December 15, 2016 – 10:04 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Art, Current Events, from Paul, History, Media, Men and Women, Movies, Music, Opera, Quotations, Television, Theater | Comments Off on LYRIC OPERA’S MAGIC FLUTE: A Metatheatrical Spectacular