Macbeth (Shakespeare)

Another energetic and lively Elm Shakespeare production in Edgerton Park. I saw one with T&K my first summer in New Haven, and I've tried to ensure that I've seen each one since then.

Highly recommended.

Dido and Aeneas (Mark Morris after Henry Purcell)

My fourth immersion in this glorious fusion of music and dance, and once again, I see and hear what I've missed before.

Highly Recommended

The Train Driver (Athol Fugard)

A moving exploration of responsibility and guilt, of regret and redemption, and ultimately of forgiveness and forgiveness once again. Fine performances of a conundrum particular to post-apartheid South Africa but easy to universalize to any peoples anywhere.

Selvish (Carly Flint)

By re-imagining the Adam and Eve myth through the lens of Koranic additions and revisions, as well as modern conceptions of human love, this play adds Flint's voice to the voices of other, more established poets & playwrights--I'm thinking particularly of Zimmerman, Hughes, and Ruhl--who've taken ancient myths as their source text but made them so much more.

Excellent performances under strong direction.

Recommend.

The Secret in the Wings (Zimmerman)

I had high hopes for this production: I'm of fan of Yale Summer Cabaret, and Zimmerman seemed like the perfect playwright for the group.

Big disappointment, and I find that YSC was the primary source of that disappointment.

Do not recommend.

Union Square (Nancy Savoca)

Here's a movie I found it difficult to create any distance from. The two sisters, played in strong performances by Mira Sorvino and Tammy Blanchard, negotiate their past and their different responses to it. Though the film is primarily set in a tidy, upwardly-mobile apartment, it portrays the sisters' lives as tottering on chaos.

Recommend.

Hope Springs (David Frankel)

An all-too-familiar (though not on screen) story of faded love in a long-term marriage. Full of humor. Endearing acting by Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell.

(Set in Omaha, NE and Maine, but filmed in CT.)

Recommend.