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Category Archives: film adaptation
Bad Behavior
Richard in Richard III is intended to be a villain. Shakespeare paints him as evil on legs. And yet, we get impatient when he’s off the stage. Clarence has a long speech filled with poetry. Yes, yes, beautiful, but could … Continue reading
Posted in Broadway, drama, film adaptation, New York, off-Broadway, playwriting, theater, Uncategorized
Tagged A Streetcar Named Desire, Aaron Sorkin, Abby Rosebrock, Alan Cumming, Atticus Finch, Blue Ridge, Carnal Knowledge, Christopher Walker, Daddy, Downstairs, Halley Feiffer, Hamish Linklater, Happy Birthday Wana June, Harper Lee, Heidi Schreck, Hillary and Clinton, Iago, Ink, Jack Nicholson, Jenny Allen, Jeremy O. Harris, Jessica Tandy, Jez Butterworth, John Osborne, Jules Feiffer, Kurt Vonnegut, Look Back in Anger, Marin Ireland, Marlon Brando, Mike Nichols, Network, Othello, Paddy Chayefsky, Restoration, Richard III, Rita Moreno, Rupert Murdoch, Shakespeare, Socratese, The Double-Dealer, The New Yorker, The Pain of My Own Belligerence, Theresa Rebeck, Tim Blake Nelson, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tyne Daly, What the Constitution Means to Me, Wheelhouse Theater
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Wandering Through History
Sometimes I think of the past as a huge black box, and any time you read a book of history or a biography or a historical novel it’s like shining a concentrated beam of light through that darkness, briefly bringing … Continue reading
Posted in film adaptation, movies
Tagged A World to Win, Alan Brinkley, Amazon streaming, Babylon Berlin, Berlin, Beyond the Fringe, Father Coughlin, FDR, Henry Ford, Hotel Adlon, Huey Long, John le Carre, John Osborne, Labour, Lanny Budd, Meyer Levin, Nazis, Netflix, postwar England, the Beatles, the depression, The Old Bunch, Tory, Traitors, Upton Sinclair, Voices of Protest, WWII
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“Mockingbird” — Stage and Screen
Kristine and I just watched the film version of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird a few days after seeing the play. The differences between the film and the stage play are instructive. In the film, the Finches’ housekeeper, Calpurnia, has maybe … Continue reading
Posted in Broadway, drama, film adaptation, movies, playwriting, Uncategorized
Tagged 1930s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Aaoron Sorkin, Alabama, Betty Smith, Calpurnia, Elia Kazan, Gavin Stevens, Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee, Intruder in the Dust, Lucas Beauchamp, Oxford Mississippi, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, William Faulkner
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In Dialogue
One of the differences between a blog post and an essay is that an essay is expected to be shapely and to move to some resonant conclusion. Occasionally a blog post will end resonantly, but mostly I find blogging is … Continue reading
Posted in Broadway, drama, film adaptation, playwriting, Uncategorized
Tagged A Streetcar Named Desire, American Buffalo, Angels in America, David Hare, David Mamet, David Storey, Heidi Schreck, John Osborne, Joyce Maynard, Look Back in Anger, Royal Court, Shelagh Delaney, The New Yorker, Tony Kushner, Trevor Griffiths, What the Constitution Means to Me
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Ramblings about “The Sea Gull” (or “The Seagull”)
I finally got around to seeing Michael Mayer’s film adaptation of The Seagull. The best reason to catch it is for Annette Bening’s performance as Arkadina. Arkadina is an actress who can’t stop performing when she’s offstage, and Bening nails … Continue reading
Posted in Chekhov, drama, film adaptation, movies, playwriting, The Sea Gull, theater
Tagged actors, movies, playwriting
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