Category Archives: World Affairs

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG: A PLAY FOR OUR TIME

Of all the types of drama, farce is the most politically incorrect. In fact, according to Aristotle, farce exists to evoke laughter and ridicule toward characters we deem to be  “not normal”. The farceur urges his audience to identify characters as worse than we are in all kinds of ways – socially, physically, morally, intellectually, […]

December 29, 2018 – 2:08 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Current Events, from Paul, History, Quotations, Theater, World Affairs | Comments (0)

THE LONDON PALLADIUM KING AND I: NOT GOOD

The King and I gets  its power from the fact that, at its core, the story is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast tale. The Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of the musical made that crystal clear when it cast a nice guy where the beast should have been. The tension and suspense […]

November 30, 2018 – 4:05 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Acting, Books, Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Quotations, Theater, World Affairs | Comments (0)

MY FIRST TATTOO

No, not that kind of tattoo! I mean the kind of tattoo I didn’t even know existed until a few weeks ago. The tattoo I mean originated in the England of 1644 as the name for a signal made, by drum beat or bugle call, in the evening for soldiers to return to their quarters, […]

May 2, 2017 – 10:32 am | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, World Affairs | Comments (0)

CST: Shakespeare’s Globe’s The Merchant of Venice: The Quality of Malice

Despite what you may read, or hear, in the news, Jews remain the most hated people in America. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports: Hate Crime Statistics, there were 1,140 victims of anti-religious hate crimes in the U.S. last year. “Of the 1,140 victims of anti-religious hate crimes: 56.8 percent [56.8%] were victims of […]

August 11, 2016 – 1:08 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in Current Events, from Paul, History, Men and Women, Music, Poetry, Quotations, Theater, Theology, World Affairs | Comments (0)

Chicago Shakespeare’s TUG OF WAR: FOREIGN FIRE: Theatrical Magnificence

“Man is a predator whose natural instinct is to kill with a weapon.” So wrote Chicago playwright and anthropologist Robert Ardrey after years of observing human nature in action all over the world. His words aptly summarize the theme of Barbara Gaines’ thrilling Tug of War: Foreign Fire, a stage edition of three of Shakespeare’s […]

May 13, 2016 – 2:54 pm | By Paul Kuritz | Posted in from Paul, History, Music, Poetry, Politics, Theater, World Affairs | Comments (0)