theater
“As You Like It” at the Folger Library

Rosalind, daughter of a deposed Duke Senior (Allen McCollough) is finally exiled by h...

original-fiction
THE WOMAN AT THE CHARDIN STILL LIFE A FABLE

    Though the paintings in our small town’s only art museum seldom ...

theater
Dramatized Version of “Sense and Sensibility” at the Folger Shakespeare Library

Jane Austen's first novel,"Sense and Sensibility,"  follows the romantic lives of two...

movies
Robert Bresson’s Poem of Despair: “The Devil Probably.”

I have recently seen again  the late Robert Bresson's penultimate film "Le diable pro...

books
Two Fine Books on Eric Rohmer

I cannot remember when I first saw an Eric Rohmer film nor which one it was.  Over ti...

hollywood
Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society”

This latest Woody Allen flick is sort of an anthology of many of his themes and preocc...

theater
“District Merchants” by Aaron Posner

Aaron Posner's new play--currently being performed at the Folger Shakespeare Library--...

books
“Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections” by Stephen Prothero

Boston University Professor Prothero's history of culture wars in the U.S. is both inf...

movies
Movie Machinations

The Great Game (Le grand jeu), directed by Nicolas Pariser, is a French thriller, tha...

theater
“Phaeton” by Michael Milligan

Phaeton  is unusual for a contemporary play for two reasons:  it is in verse and it...

philosophy
Journey to the West

The  Constellation Theatre Company has staged many tales of of mythology and fantasy:...

theater
The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord

In this play by Scott Carpenter and staged by the Washington Stage Guild, Jefferson, D...

books
“The Relic Master” by Christopher Buckley

This latest yarn by Christopher Buckley is a fun exercise in historical fiction.  The...

theater
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Folger Library

All is not well amongst young Athenians. Hermes and Lysander are in love but Hermia's ...

theater
Two Amusing One Act Plays

The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, DC is staging two one-act comedies at i...

books
“Russell Kirk: American Conservative” by Bradley J. Birzer

Russell Kirk was one of the leading thinkers of the post-Second World War American con...

movies
Macbeth as Filmed Theatre

This latest film  version of Shakespeare's  concentrated, intense tragedy about the ...

theater
Impure Comedies

The basic plot of Sarah Ruhl's "Stage Kiss" (directed by Aaron Posner at the Round Hou...

books
The Thought-Provoking “Love in the Western World’ by Denis de Rougement

First written in 1938 and revised and enlarged in 1954, Love in the Western World is ...

theater
Pericles at the Folger Library

Pericles, an underrated Shakespeare play, is being given a fine performance at the Fol...

books
The Madagaskar Plan by Guy Saville

In this well written alternative history novel,  Germany has won the Second World War...

theater
Lovecraft on Stage

H. P.Lovecraft (1890-1937) is probably, after Edgar Allan Poe and alongside Ambrose Bi...

books
Two Classics on the Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), despite having little place in American cultural me...

movies
Woody Allen’s Latest Flick: “Irrational Man”

Woody Allen has a genius for comedy but sometimes makes serious films with few if any ...

theamericanculture
“Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom” by Jennifer Haley

The Molotov Theatre group is devoted to plays in the Grand Guignol style, which basicall...

movies
Lancelot du lac (Lancelot of the Lake) by Robert Bresson

I have previously written of the unique film-making style of Robert Bresson (who died in...

books
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) wrote some of the more intriguing science fiction of the latt...

theater
A Semi-Existentialist Comedy: Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead”

At the beginning of this play, Rosencrantz (Rommell Witherspoon) and Guildenstern (Adam...

books
More Imaginative Than Insightful: ‘The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty,’ by Amanda Filipacchi

There are three interrelated plot strands to The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty, a hi...

movies
An Intelligent Thriller: ‘Ex Machina’

The creation of artificial human beings has a long history in literature and film, going b...

theater
Review: Another Visit with Chekhov’s Unnecessarily Tragic ‘Uncle Vanya’

After premiering in 1899, Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya went on to become a theatrical sta...

books
Review: ‘The Great Divide: Why Liberals and Conservatives Will Never, Ever Agree’

Many people argue that our time is a particularly hyper-partisan one. I wonder if they ...

movies
Monday Movie: Not Much More Than a Comedy—Baumbach’s ‘While We’re Young’

While We Were Young, by Noah Baumbach, is an amusing comedy, but it seems to be trying t...