T. J. Walsh and gifted cast find stark beauty in King Lear, creating a truly sublime production, at times funny, more often than not horribly tragic, but above all else, deeply moving.
There is much to love, much to laugh at, and much to wonder at in Trinity Shakespeare's production of The Tempest, performed in repertory with A Comedy of Errors.
Trinity Shakespeare shines yet again, delivering an excellent production of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors for their 2014 Season.
The Lego minifigure is turning 40 this year and it has come far since its invention in 1974. Today, some rare, collectible, and unique minifigures can be worth over $100 each.
Beyond the youth of the actors, there is nothing "junior" about this production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The acting, costumes, lighting, music, and set design are marvelous and very professional. The Junior Players, drawn from Dallas-area high schools, perform their parts...
Sara Romersberger's directorial debut is a smashing success. This production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is a joy to watch. Apart from the usual fantastic scenery, colorful costumes, and comic antics that Shakespeare fans expect from a production of MSD, this production also boasts...
For their 2013 season, Shakespeare Dallas has two rarely performed plays in store for North Texas: Pericles (opening this weekend) and The Winter's Tale (opening this fall). Pericles remains a slight outcast in the Shakespeare canon. It was not included in the First Folio and today most scholars...
Jean Pierre Melville is perhaps the one of the most under appreciated directors in the history of film.Certainly he is the most under appreciated director of the French New Wave.
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, in spite of its ongoing popularity among scholars and critics, is not commonly performed on the stage. The Trinity Shakespeare Festival's 2013 season offers a splendid production of Julius Caesar that does this dramatic masterpiece full justice. The cast, lighting, and...
Anthony's speech from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare is one of the Bard's most famous speeches but it is often used more as an oratorical device than seriously studied.
While Michael Mann's Heat is similar to the film Takers, it is a far better film that displays superior cinematography and acting and boasts a better script.
Although the target audience for the "Toy Story" franchise is supposed to be children, the films themselves are actually about adult professionals dealing with adult problems.
Baz Luhrmann's 2013 film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel, The Great Gatsby, brings the novel to life and surpasses all previous film adaptations.
Although Inception and the Matrix share many similar themes, Inception is a far more interesting and visually complex film.
Historians have offered many theories to explain what could drive Alexander the Great to so rapidly conquer much of the known world. Some suggest Alexander was an idealistic visionary who sought to unite the world, helping men of all races and religions live in peace and harmony. Others argue that...
Plutarch’s Lives of Cato the Younger and Brutus examine the roles of philosopher-politicians in the turbulent atmosphere in Rome around the time of the Civil War. Both Lives function as examples of how good Stoics should behave and what role they ought to play in society. However, Plutarch’s Lives...
In The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare advances the unique idea that art, not nature, has powerful redemptive qualities. The play’s pastoral elements endorse natural values and condemn the artifice of the court but the play also undermines the pastoral, complicating the one-sided view of a perfect...
Although the Pardoner claims he preaches of “nothyng but for coveitise,” The Pardoner’s Tale prominently features and condemns the sin of blasphemy emphasizing the severity of the sin and depicting its dire consequences (VI.433). The Pardoner’s three “rioters” swear oaths profusely throughout the...
In staging Richard III, the crown is the most essential prop. The crown is of great importance to the action and meaning of Richard III. It is an image as crucial to the meaning of this play as the skull in Hamlet or the dagger in Macbeth. Shakespeare uses the crown to explore the plays concern...
Epic in theme, powerful in symbols, brief in length, and clever in rhyme, Edgar Allan Poe’s “Eldorado” is a masterpiece of verse. With his careful choices, Poe crafted this small but powerful poem as an undying testament to man’s heroic but futile quest for the ideal.
Chaucer’s Knight reveals the profound belief that women are important, indeed necessary to the concept of knighthood, and that the warrior side of a knight is dangerously violent and ought to be ruled by his gentler courtier side in order for him to be truly gentle. Lines 1746 to 1761 of “The...
In The Masque of the Red Death, Poe uses elements of the fantastic such as the story’s ambiguous setting and narrator, the bizarre seven rooms where the masque is held, and the appearance of the spectral figure of the “Red Death” to communicate the horror and inevitability of death. Through his...
Translating detective novels like The Thin Man to film can be a difficult task. The filmmakers must remain true to the novel (or at least the aspects of the novel that they like) but must alter it so that it can be presented coherently in about one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half hours. The makers of...
Family Business, by Mayfair Games, is a fast and furious mafia-inspired card game. Each player takes control of a different gang and players take turns playing cards on each other trying to kill enemy gang members.
Neuroshima Hex is a Polish Boardgame that has come to America and is gaining a significant following among American players. It is currently available as board game and as a mobile phone or tablet app. The game can be played by two to four players (or alone if you own the mobile app). The game...
In filming a play as tightly and economically constructed as Tennessee Williams’s The Glass Menagerie, each element in the production must be flawless. Paul Newman’s 1987 film version comes to near perfection in every way. The setting is perfect and the cast is marvelous and the film quite...
The concept of escapism is a strong theme in Tennessee Williams’s play "The Glass Menagerie." Amanda, Laura, and Tom Wingfield seek to escape the dull and depressing reality. They engage in escapism by retreating into their own fantasies, which push them farther apart.
Once Upon a Time in the West is a wonderful film and represents the genius of Sergio Leone when he was at the height of his craft. Sadly, this film has been overshadowed by Leone's other epic Western The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
What does "to be or not to be" mean? The line from Shakespeare's "Hamlet" is one of the most famous of all time, but few know its meaning within the context of the play.
All the major male characters in "The Great Gatsby," not just Nick, are sunk in nostalgia and longing for an unattainable past.
Coriolanus is Shakespeare's last political tragedy (written circa 1610). It is every bit as good as any other play the Bard composed but it has not been often performed. It recounts the true story of Caius Martius Coriolanus and is based upon the portion of Plutarch's Lives concerning Coriolanus....
Reading Shakespeare can be made easier by understanding a few basic facts. Shakespeare's plays fall into three basic genre's of Comedy, History, and Tragedy. Each genre has its own specific conventions associated with it. One of the best editions of Shakespeare to read in print are the Folger...
Reading Shakespeare can seem a daunting task but it is easier than many people think. Reading the play, then seeing it performed on screen or stage, then rereading the play or seeing another version of the same play performed will help demystify Shakespeare for the serious student and casual reader...