Peter Gomes on the Colbert Report

If you’ve already seen Let Me Down Easy you’ll know that one of the characters portrayed by Anna Deavere Smith is Peter Gomes, the Minister of Harvard’s Memorial Church.

Peter appeared on The Colbert Report on Monday evening, and gave a hilarious and outrageous interview to Stephen Colbert.  If you missed it, you’ll find it here.

Introducing Endgame

Samuel Beckett’s Endgame is one of the most beautiful, enigmatic, and absurdly funny plays of the twentieth century.  It is built as a kind of riddle, in which many meanings can be found – or, Beckett would probably prefer to say, no meaning.

Introducing The Seagull

Hungarian director János Szász has been a favorite with A.R.T. audiences since 2001, when he dazzled us with his breathtaking production of Mother Courage.  Since then he has staged spectacular versions of Marat/Sade, Uncle Vanya, and Desire Under the Elms, always using the cavernous Loeb Stage to eye-popping effect.

Introducing Aurélia’s Oratorio

One of my earliest and happiest memories as a child in London was our annual visit to the Cirque Imaginaire, or “imaginary circus.”

 Not really a circus so much as a fanciful show of acrobatics and illusion, it was breathtaking and magical.

Introducing The Communist Dracula Pageant

Anne Washburn is one of my favorite young American playwrights.  In plays such as The Internationalist, The Ladies, and Apparition, she has revealed wonderfully theatrical imagination, far removed from the realism and family dramas that currently dominate American and British playwriting. 

Anne’s plays are purely theatrical; it’s hard to imagine them adapted as scripts for film or television.  She delights in stage illusion, in ghosts, fantasies, and figments of our imagination.  Her style reminds me somewhat of early Caryl Churchill, and she has something of Tony Kushner’s epic and historical sweep, but ultimately her voice is unique.