Metro Pulse

Shakespeare on the Square dares to bring the Bard’s English into the humid arena of Market Square. Stratford-upon-Avon’s own Kieron Barry is there to catch all the action. Full story »

I have a recurring fear when at the cinema. On screen, the hero gives his “hoo-hah” turnaround speech in Act Three and the assembled athletes, factory workers, or grateful villagers that have thronged about him break into a riot of applause. At this point I discover that I, too, having momentarily forgotten my status, am on my feet, loudly joining the euphoria in an otherwise motionless auditorium. To complete the torture I must then make my choice between hacking through the confusion of knees around me in a bid for the aisle, or sitting back down under the icy deluge of contempt. Full story »

Theater: After seeing Philip Seymour Hoffmann’s stunning off-Broadway production of The Little Flower of East Orange last week, I thought it a safe bet I wouldn’t emerge so exhilarated from a theater for some time. But in Guys & Dolls, of course, safe bets generally prove no such thing. In Terry Silver-Alford’s production of the classic gamblers’ fable, now playing at the Clarence Brown, we have an immensely lovable rendition of one of the greatest American theatrical works of the 20th century, and it provides as joyful an evening as one could hope for. Full story »

Lynne Nottage’s Intimate Apparel is set in the America of the early 1900s, a world in which if you can’t be male you’d better be white, and if you can’t be white you’d better be attractive. Probing this obnoxious pecking order, Andrea J. Dymond’s assured, fluid production provides all the elements of a worthy drama except, by and large, drama itself. Full story »