Patti Abbott has challenged folks again on the topic of the zoo: here’s mine with apologies to Edward Albee and William Shakespeare and Bruce Robinson as well. So there. Zoo Story “So, this is the place.” “This? Why?” “I thought it would be dramatic.” “Dramatic? Why? Wolf howls make it dramatic?” “Not exactly. That scene…
Category: plays
Friday’s Forgotten Books: The Life of Christina of Markyate
I don’t think there’s much chance of overlap with this week’s choice. The life of a twelfth century recluse: it doesn’t scream popular appeal, I suppose. But it should! A fascinating story and an early biography of a woman in a time when few but kings and saints got their stories told (fortunately at least…
Women’s Day, Con-Eire & BitchBuzz
Happy International Women’s Day! A day to celebrate and a day to chastise because there’s a long way to go yet and I’m getting more than a little impatient at fighting the same battles I have fought since childhood. There has been progress, I remind myself, but there’s a long way to go until NO…
Friday’s Forgotten Books: Three Plays by Mae West
You think you know Mae West, don’t you? The slightly risqué performer with the voluptuous curves: who asked Cary Grant to come up and see her, told Beulah to peel her a grape? What you may not know is how much she cleaned up her act for the movies. Three Plays includes Sex, The Drag…
Lumottu (Enchanted)
Tonight my play LUMOTTU will get a reading at the Arts Society of Kingston’s Playwrights’ Lab New Play Readings at 6:30 PM ARTS SOCIETY OF KINGSTON 97 Broadway Kingston NY 12401 Arja lives with one foot in this world and the other in the mythic world of ancient Finland. Her family has moved to the…
Counting the Days
…until the packing is done. Then I remember how few days there are and gulp, because there’s still so much to do. On a more positive note: my play Lumottu (“Enchanted”) from Unikirja gets a reading next Tuesday in Kingston at the Arts Society, 6:30 pm. If you can show up, do! It will be…
Mary of Nijmeghen
Mary — or Mariken van Nieumeghen as it is in the original — is a play that shows up in the early sixteenth century. My students read it this week and (among other things) we talked about how one might adapt it to a modern movie and came up with a really good plan. They’re…
Friday’s Forgotten Books: Between the Angels and the Apes
Not so much “forgotten” as — what? Aborted? Headed off at the pass? The initial news was wonderful: Alan Moore writing an opera on John Dee with Gorillaz! What’s not to love? It sounded like a match made in an alchemical lab somewhere with the potential of turning into gold. There was just one problem:…
NT Live: The Cherry Orchard
“Who cares about Chekhov anyway? A bunch of old women moaning about ducks flying home to Moscow.” ~ Withnail [Richard E. Grant] in Withnail & I I am always grateful to the Spectrum 8 for hosting the NT Live performances; I’m also grateful that enough people in the Capital region attend them to make it…
Running to Catch Up
That’s a misleading title as I plan for this to be a very lazy Sunday. I may wander out to a museum this afternoon and get myself a Sunday roast dinner, but that’s about as far as my ambitions run at present. I often have the thought of how little time I have in London…