Arts
Production of 'La Celestina' is a mystery unveiled
In the fine new production of the classic Spanish tragicomedy, "La Celestina," the hidden recesses behind the curtain become a new space for theater in the round.
September 30, 2023 | Latest Issue
In the fine new production of the classic Spanish tragicomedy, "La Celestina," the hidden recesses behind the curtain become a new space for theater in the round.
The "Metamorphosis," Ovid's story-bag of shiftings -- usually about people turning into trees and other assorted foliage -- could never be produced in full. With a hundred tales that span over 15 books (in dactylic hexameter!), any director should have to drop such stories as Orpheus and his lyre, Pygmalion and his lovely statue, and Leda the Swan. The most recent production of Ovid's work, by Northern Stage in White River Junction, however, does not drop the most important part: the beach party. Just as the theme of "Metamorphosis" is change, it is also water, that most polymorphic of substances.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that women and men sometimes have nice relationships with each other.
The College becomes a photo album this fall; black and white photographs show in the Hop, quaint geography snapshots crowd the walls of second-floor Collis and administrative offices (e.g., the Dean of the College) jazz up bureaucracy with photographed action sequences. The most visible show of photography this term is Ty Garland '02's 34 color prints in Collis.
Paul Gaffney's direction of "As You Like It" brings Shakespeare's romantic comedy home. The storybook charm of Edwardian American sets and costumes, the reserved characters, the rational progression of events, the reluctance to soliloquize too self-centeredly and the degree to which actors keep to their own lines makes stepping indoors from turn of the century Upper Valley into turn of the century Adirondacks entirely natural. We seek the natural, in nature.
In light of the "Hanover" theme this week, I had hoped to review local art galleries. Unfortunately, Hanover has none. Hanover does have a branch of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen (next to Rosey Jekes), where one can purchase crafts including wooden and ceramic bowls and kitchen accoutrements, some silky formless clothing, and beautiful but insignificant cherry furniture.
Susan Lichtman's exhibit of mostly recent oils on linen, "21 Small Paintings," shows in the Hopkins Center's Upper Jewett Corridor (the hallways on either side of the Hinman mailboxes) through the middle of October. Lichtman's dark interior scenes display poorly in this less than museum-like setting (especially on field-trip days for local elementary schools), so at first they might remind one of earlier, vaguer Pierre Bonnards dragged through the mud (no offense meant -- pretty mud, I mean). Bonnard does not deserve this comparison, and in further analysis the comparison does not capture much of the sense of Lichtman's oeuvre.
We all wish our lives had a theme-song -- or at least musical interludes between the serious-sounding appointments.
By the fall of Pol Pot's treacherous reign over Cambodia (1975-79), a quarter of the nation's people, the Khmer, were dead.
