Theater April 2008
Signs of the times
On Conversations in Tusculum at the Public Theater, The Cherry Orchard Sequel at LaMaMa ETC., Gray Area at the Barrow Group, and Next to Normal at the Second Stage Theater.
History may be more than bunk, and more than one damn thing after another, but unfortunately it does not consist of a series of neat, comprehensible lessons; even those who do know history appear doomed to repeat it. Still, the temptation to draw occasionally sententious parallels between present and past seems hard to resist, and the historical period which by common consent seems most nearly parallel to twenty-first century America is that of the end of the Roman republic and beginning of the empire, with George W. Bush usually compared either to Julius Caesar or to the Emperor Augustus.
This theme has been the inspiration for Richard Nelsons Conversations in Tusculum, now playing at the Public Theater with a dream cast that includes Brian Dennehy as Cicero, David Strathairn as Cassius, and Aidan Quinn as Brutus. It is 45 B.C.: Pompey is dead, Cato has killed himself rather than...
A Message from the Editors
Support our crucial work and join us in strengthening the bonds of civilization.
Your donation sustains our efforts to inspire joyous rediscoveries.