The New Criterion
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TheaterFebruary 2013 Comedy & condescension On The Heiress, Dead Accounts, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
There are many older plays that rely heavily upon our identification with long-abandoned sexual and marital norms for their dramatic power, and it requires a bit of work on the part of the audience to enter into a world in which infidelity or bastardy are life-and-death issues. For related reasons, contemporary plays about marriage and romance face a very high hurdle: In our time, there is so little at stake in sexual relations that additional elements often must be introduced in order to hold our attention. Nina Raine’s very popular Tribes, to take one example, would be one quirk short of a staged Wes Anderson film but for the elements extraneous to the romance at its heart, in this case the deafness ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 31 February 2013, on page 36 Copyright © 2013 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Comedy---condescension-7551
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Coverage of Macbeth, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Hands on a Hardbody. On Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, My Name Is Asher Lev, and The Other Place. On Glengarry Glen Ross, Channeling Kevin Spacey, and The Anarchist. On Grace, Einstein on the Beach, and Krapp's Last Tape. On Through the Yellow Hour, Chaplin, and The Volcano.
Webcasts
Poet George Green reads from his award-winning Lord Byron's Foot
Celebration of the Life of Robert H. Bork, 1927–2012
James Panero on price gouging at the Met, with Fred Dicker Weblog 
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