5.29.11
This is an Archival Site
There is now a new Rogovoy Report home
5.18.11
Weekend Preview May 19-24
Bob Dylan tributes, Deborah Voigt, Tom Paxton, Bill Kirchen, John Kirk and Trish Miller
5.18.11
Celebrating Bob Dylan's 70th Birthday in Style
Paying tribute to the greatest rock songwriter ever
5.17.11
FILM REVIEW: In a Better World and Of Gods and Men
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.17.11
'LIKE' The Rogovoy Report on Facebook
Click 'LIKE' to Receive Facebook feeds from The Rogovoy Report
5.12.11
Deborah Voigt Headlines Mahaiwe Gala
Opera star to sing arias, show tunes on Saturday, May 21
5.15.11
Famed Spiritual Teacher to Speak on Nonviolence
Mother Maya in free talk at Sruti Yoga in Great Barrington, Mass., on Friday May 20 at 7pm
5.12.11
Special Effects Wizard to Be Honored by Film Festival
Doug Trumbull to be Feted by BIFF
5.11.11
Weekend Preview May 12-16
Cultural Highlights of the Berkshire Weekend
6.4.09
Talk about a small world
Elaine and I grew up together, but only just recently met....
5.8.11
Berkshire Living to Cease Publication
A Farewell from Publisher Michael Zivyak
5.8.11
twiGs Branches Out
Lenox boutique launches new e-tail site
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.8.11
[MUSIC REVIEW] Avalon Quartet in Close Encounters at Mahaiwe
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
5.7.11
[FILM REVIEW] Bill Cunningham New York
Review by Seth Rogovoy
|
THEATER REVIEW: Reviving Edgar Allan Poe
11.3.05
SHAKESPEARE & COMPANY
“The Tell-Tale Poe”
By Edgar Allan Poe
Featuring F. Murray Abraham and Elizabeth Banks
Written and produced by Gordon Hyatt
Founders’ Theatre
Lenox, Mass.
October 29 and 30, 2005
Shakespeare & Company presented another one of its star-studded literary tributes to “company,” i.e., someone other than Shakespeare, this past weekend with its terrific “Tell-Tale Poe” program, saluting the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, in a well-timed, pre-Halloween program starring actors F. Murray Abraham and Elizabeth Banks (she a native of Pittsfield, Mass.), featuring illustrations by the Berkshires’ own Michael McCurdy and terrific sound design by Jason Fitzgerald.
This program, which actually took place three times over the course of two days in three different varieties (different stories and poems), was more than a mere reading if less than a fully staged drama. The program that I saw, at least (Sunday night) was a thrilling, chilling, and entertaining immersion into the grislier side of Poe’s work and his obsessions: walling up people alive in cellars, animal abuse, alcoholism, among others.
The Poe we heard from was one for whom the everyday incursions of life were a terrible infringement on one’s peace and privacy, the solution of which was always to inflict violence on the offender, be he animal or human, or to douse the pain with fire, alcohol, or some other effective remedy. And to get away with it is even better.
Abraham and Banks were terrific sports, plunging into the stories and poems (on Sunday including “The Bells,” “The Black Cat,” “For Annie,” “Ulalume,” “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Raven”) and Poe’s resonant language with joy and enthusiasm, inhabiting the dark characters and making good use of the intimate space of the Founders’ Theatre.
McCurdy’s woodcuts perfectly captured the grisly aesthetic of Poe (one looks forward to McCurdy’s versions of Kafka, if he hasn’t yet already tackled those!); Fitzgerald painted subtle but effective touches with his sound effects; and Gordon Hyatt deserves the lion’s share of credit for putting together another in what has become a regular series of such presentations celebrating the “company” – the great, post-Shakespearean American writers.
--Seth Rogovoy
|
...sites that work