Theater | Raging Biblio-holism

Mister Monkey

January 25, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: A misfit company of off-off-off-Broadway actors present a treacly children’s musical called Mister Monkey. A child in the audience asks his grandfather: “Are you interested in this?” The novelist who wrote the original book (which was then adapted into this play) considers his life, decades after success. And all the while, the monkey watches… The Review: My friend and co-host Christopher told me, as he finished this book, that he was reminded of A Visit From the Goon Squad […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Francine Prose, Literature, Mister Monkey, review, Reviews, The Tournament of Books 2017, Theater

Hag-Seed

September 19, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Felix Phillips, reeling from the death of his daughter, has been deposed as artistic director of the Makeshewig Theater Festival by his unscrupulous associate. After years in exile, he emerges with a plan to get his revenge – a plan that involves teaching theater to prisoners and creating a real-life version of The Tempest. For the play’s the thing wherein he just might catch the conscience of those who wronged him… and maybe his own as well… The […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Advance Review, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Hag-Seed, Hogarth, Hogarth Books, Hogarth Shakespeare, Literature, Margaret Atwood, review, Reviews, The Tempest, Theater

The Shapes We Make With Our Bodies

April 22, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A woman called Honey grapples with, well, what being a woman means while three Maenads torment her around the edges (and even, perhaps, directly). The Review: Have you ever given much thought to a sigh? Like, really thought about it – the movement of the body, the emotion expressed therein, and so on? I confess that I never gave much thought to a sigh (other than in the moment of shoulder-loosening release that sometimes comes with sighing) […]

Categories: Contemporary, Plays • Tags: Avant-Garde Theater, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Contemporary, Meg Whiteford, Plays, Plays Inverse, Poetic Theater, Poetry, Reviews, The Shapes We Make With Our Bodies, Theater, TNBBC

Bloodletting in Minor Scales / The Invention of Monsters: Two Plays from Plays Inverse

December 1, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Two plays from Plays Inverse, an inventive publisher of poetic theatricality or theatrical poetry (depending). In one, a strange dissolution of reality after a mother’s attempted suicide. The other provides a series of short scenes, meant to be interpreted as you will. The Review: I’ve been sitting on these two plays for several months now (and ultimately decided to review them together) because I didn’t quite know how to talk about them. I revisited them a few […]

Categories: Contemporary, Fiction, Plays • Tags: Bloodletting in Minor Scales, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, C. Dylan Bassett, Contemporary, Justin Limoli, Plays, Plays Inverse, Poetry, Reviews, Stage, The Invention of Monsters, Theater, TNBBC

The Gap of Time

September 30, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Leo and Xeno are childhood best friends – but when Leo’s manic jealousy gets the better of him in adulthood, believing that Xeno is having an affair with Leo’s wife, it splinters not only their friendship but Leo’s family. But all that is lost can be found again and, some sixteen years later, a young girl named Perdita and a boy named Zel fall in love – and bring two families back together again. The Review: Covers are […]

Categories: Fiction • Tags: Advance Review, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Hogarth, Hogarth Books, Hogarth Shakespeare, Jeanette Winterson, Literature, Reviews, Shakespeare, The Gap of Time, The Winter's Tale, Theater, William Shakespeare

Fates and Furies

September 21, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: On an auspicious collegiate evening, Lotto meets Mathilde. Two weeks later they are married and their relationship over the next twenty years is a study in the realities of love and partnership. Then, after tragedy strikes, the fated Lotto’s story gives way to that of the furious Mathilde – and the true depths of a partnership are revealed. The Review: There’s a recurring comment in the theater community, one often tossed off as a sort of joke, that the […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 6, BEA15, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fates and Furies, Fiction, Greeks, Lauren Groff, Literature, Love, Marriage, Reviews, Romance, The Tournament of Books 2016, Theater

Selected Shorts: Welcome to Night Vale

March 19, 2015 by Drew

Cecil Baldwin reads from Will Eno / glows from his forehead third-eye If you’re an internet person – and, if you’re reading this, chances are good that you’re an internet person – you’ve heard of Welcome to Night Vale. The weird little-podcast-that-could following the goings on of a distinctly odd little community in the Southwestern United States has become a bonafide sensation: #1 podcast on iTunes, a touring live show, and a forthcoming novel from the creators. If you haven’t listened (or […]

Categories: Events, Features • Tags: Carlos the Scientist, Cecil Baldwin, Dylan Marron, Events, Fantasy, Features, Horror, Jeffrey Fink, John Darnielle, Joseph Cranor, Mara Wilson, Matthew Love, New York Neo-Futurists, Night Vale, Performance, Reading, Recaps, Sci-Fi, Selected Shorts, Shirley Jackson, Short Stories, Symphony Space, The Mountain Goats, Theater, Weird, Welcome to Night Vale, Will Eno, WNYC

The Humbling

November 9, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: Simon Axler, a famous and aging actor, has lost his gift. Unable to perform anymore, he begins to question his own existence – until Pegeen, the daughter of an old friend, comes into the picture. She might be a lesbian, but they become lovers. Does this signal a turnaround for Axler or is it just a brief pause before the end? The Review: …huh. You know, I think I’ve given Philip Roth enough chances now. I read The […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Acting, Al Pacino, Barry Levinson, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Film, Film Review, Literature, Philip Roth, Reviews, The Humbling, The New Yorker Festival, Theater

King Charles III

August 16, 2014 by Drew

The Short Version: The Queen is dead – long live the King? Written in the style of a Shakespearean history play, Mike Bartlett imagines what might happen if Prince Charles were to ascend to the throne right now and what such a moment might mean for Britain, for the monarchy, and for a family that’s never not known power. The Review: It should come as no surprise to long-time readers that I am an Anglophile. Oh, don’t get me wrong, I love […]

Categories: Contemporary, Plays • Tags: Almeida Theater, Book Reviews, Books, British Monarchy, Charles Windsor, Contemporary, England, Harry Windsor, Kate Middleton, King Charles, King Charles III, Mike Bartlett, Plays, Reviews, Rupert Goold, The Prince of Wales, Theater, West End, William Windsor

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Tag: Theater