Category Archives: Movies

ON THE 20TH CENTURY: ANOTHER HOMEGROWN CHICAGO MUSICAL SMASH

Unlike the fear of Y2K which heralded the new 21st century, the arrival the twentieth century was the occasion for enthusiasm, hope, and braggadocio. President William McKinley: “The century now drawing to a close has been most memorable in the world’s progress and history. The march of mankind in moral and intellectual advancement has been […]

HOW THE HELL DID I GET HERE? Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Lesley Nicol AKA Mrs. Patmore

One person plays usually mean an actor portraying a famous person on stage. The most famous one person plays are probably Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain and Julie Harris as Emily Dickinson. Through the work of various  artists, solo performances developed as living artists played themselves on stage. The psychologically intense confessional comedies by Spaulding […]

NEW WEBSITE: THE S YMBOLIC WORLD- Chesterton for the 21st Century

                  G.K. Chesterton called them  fairy tales. They inspired C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. SOME solemn and superficial people (for nearly all very superficial people are solemn) have declared that the fairy-tales are immoral; they base this upon some accidental circumstances or regrettable incidents in the war […]

THE COURT THEATRE’S THE MOUSETRAP: NEAR PERFECTION

In the late 1920s, mystery writer Ronald Knox published  “Ten Commandments for Writing Detective Fiction.” With her monumental play The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie violated the central commandment. (to reveal that commandment would be the ultimate spoiler.) Dame Christie’s flaunting of the detective mystery norms may account for the play’s record setting run. The mystery has […]

THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS: LEWIS UNDONE

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the […]