An autocracy works best when the head of state pits one person against another. If the other contradicts (in their estimation) the party line, he is dAn autocracy works best when the head of state pits one person against another. If the other contradicts (in their estimation) the party line, he is dismissed Goodreads is an autocracy. I have been on this site since 2014 (although my profile states 2017 as an error that cannot be fixed). I have been reprimanded twice in ten years. I have been threatened with excommunication. I have been censored. I will not allow my emotions to be dampened. By an uncourageous and cowardly Oz who sits anonymously behind the curtain. I debate whether I can continue to exist in this fabricated land created by Amazon and the company. Blacklisting, scapegoating, and sanitizing what is written is against my ethos. Erasing some words or many words is anathema. (If these comments are erased, as one was recently, without my saying farewell, it will have confirmed my big brother instincts). I will not comment on this play. I will not tow the government of Goodreads, some of its staff, and the community member as a nemesis, line. A shame that I have lived long enough to witness such blatant and invisible vigilantes in my lifetime of books and reading them. I am currently in a liminal state between continuing as a member of this community or departure. I consider my sixty-two friends here with respect, admiration, and care. I am saddened. (If this review is erased, as a recent one was, without my formal and fond farewell, it will have confirmed my instincts)...more
Between Riverside and Crazy is a play about a retired police officer who lives in a large apartment in New York with his son and some other people. HeBetween Riverside and Crazy is a play about a retired police officer who lives in a large apartment in New York with his son and some other people. He’s suing the city for shooting him eight years ago, but he faces many difficulties. The play is funny, moving, smart, and realistic. It explores issues like human relationships, social justice, and personal growth. The characters are complex and likable, especially the police officer. The dialogue is natural and witty. The play has surprises and conflicts, and the ending is unexpected but satisfying....more
Leopoldstadt is a screenplay that will captivate your attention and inspire your action. Tom Stoppard has written a splendid script that chronicles thLeopoldstadt is a screenplay that will captivate your attention and inspire your action. Tom Stoppard has written a splendid script that chronicles the saga of a Jewish family in Vienna from 1899 to 1955. The screenplay is both timeless and timely, as it portrays the struggles and successes, the hopes and horrors, the courage and compassion of a people who faced unspeakable violence and genocide.
The screenplay is expertly written with a large cast of characters that are authentic and engaging. The dialogue is witty and poignant, full of humor and wisdom. The structure is original and impactful, shifting between different time periods and locations. The imagery is vivid and powerful, evoking an intense sense of atmosphere and emotion.
Leopoldstadt is a screenplay that will make you sob, wonder, and learn, honor and mourn. It is a screenplay that celebrates the strength of Jewish culture and history, while also exposing the cruel and horrific realities of antisemitism and the Holocaust. It is a screenplay that caused me inner tumult as I read it, as I felt the implications of the story in my own life. It is also a screenplay that tragically mirrors the zeitgeist of today throughout the world, where hatred and intolerance are accelerating. It is a screenplay that you should not miss while it plays in NYC or read it, as I did.
This play centers around this recent movement, although I suspect similar behaviors have always been apparent.
The woman who wrote this play, aMe too.
This play centers around this recent movement, although I suspect similar behaviors have always been apparent.
The woman who wrote this play, an ex-barrister, worked herself up the legal ladder to become a defense attorney (in Australia?).
She often, while practicing, did not believe in the sincerity of her female clients claims of rape; that there must have been some culpability on the part of her clientage.
In this play, she reconsiders her role as an advocate for her constituency, when she herself is confronted and abused by a fellow male defense barrister.
“Reality is when it happens to you.”
A tough play to read.
A necessary one to know, especially for nonplussed men. ...more
It is a fifty/fifty roll of the dice that it will succeed (and I am unsure how to define, ‘succeed.’).
So, if half of the pairings end up in dMarriage.
It is a fifty/fifty roll of the dice that it will succeed (and I am unsure how to define, ‘succeed.’).
So, if half of the pairings end up in divorce, what about they who stay together? Are they happy? Or are they obligated to it because of family, religion, society, children, and so forth?
The ones who stay together, are they still in love? Or have they learned how to ‘manage’ their relationship, which sounds a bit corporate? And after 10, 20, 30 years, what is the nature of their love (another word I ache to define)?
Or are the couples that remain merely lazy, co-dependent, comfortable enough, or scared of change? I do not have any answers. Just questions.
Friends for years, they dine together often. They are in their mid-forties, a potentially precarious time for many marriages.
One couple is amid dissolution.
The other couple, their friends, are apparently happy and cheery and do all their chores together.
But each couple, as the separation plays out, is affected in their singular way.
And within the two duos exist two distinct individuals, husband and wife, each retaining their own perceptions of what is going on between themselves and with their friends, the faltering pair.
Two are Muslims and one is a Jew and we have a white American Muslim wannabe.
At one of the coThree attorneys and an artist.
Two females and two males.
Two are Muslims and one is a Jew and we have a white American Muslim wannabe.
At one of the couple's apartment in Manhattan for a dinner. In four acts.
This is a great little play written by a Muslim man of Pakistani descent and born in the United States.
The play concerns itself with American Muslims, with American Muslims and Jews, with men and women, with interfaith marriages, with 9/11, with al Qaeda, with the Quran and other bibles, with Islam's attitude toward the United States.
It may have won a Pulitzer.
It covers a lot of what we all have thought about but never discussed.
It is not an emotionally easy play to read. It may be discomfiting.
I would recommend it.
(and see, no personal commentary about lawyers)...more
Ya’ know, I have read enough of these ancient Greek plays, and it makes me wonder. What was it like in those"Helen?"
"Helen of Troy?"
"No. Helen Reddy."
Ya’ know, I have read enough of these ancient Greek plays, and it makes me wonder. What was it like in those days?
I mean, men are writing all these tragedies. Men are acting in all these plays including the female parts. Men are the only ones in their ‘choruses.’ Men are the entire audience.
The sun beats hard in Athens, Crete and nearby towns and all these ‘guys’ are running around in loose-fitting togas or something. Sweatin' all the time.
They seem to do a lot of philosophizing and just as much ‘drama.’ Well, some of each anyway.
They are tutoring their sons with all their accumulated non-wisdom and so it goes.
Where in heaven’s name are the women? And what are they doing? Gathering rocks, washing clothes in the sea, cooking up some gluten-free Mediterranean cuisine? Fantasizing about Achilles?
“Hi, honey, I'm home. I spent the entire afternoon walking and listening to that kooky Aristotle. Then I took in a play by Sophocles with Meeskiet, you know, the cobbler. Ach, it was an exhausting day. And you, what did you prepare for my dinner?”
“Nebachness, I worked all day for you and our children although we both know that the daughters do not matter to you. But the boys were well fed and then they played discus and javelin together by the new diner without hurting anyone. Would you like to hear about Sitz and Fliesch, our daughters? Oh, and I made some cucumber salad with feta.”
“No. Honey, my tunic is stained. Can you wash it because I have another big meeting tomorrow, then dinner, and a show? I wonder how it got so dirty?”
“Were you eating those prunes and figs today on your walk?”
Really, how did/do the women bare all this insanity from, let us say 500 B.C.E. to…2000 A.D.?
Antigone is a female played by a male. Oy, does she have tzuris (problems), Saul of Tzuris, you should never know. Check it out. Her father is the ever-famous anti-lothario Oedipus and her mother and grandmother are the same person. She gets along with her sister, thank heavens, but two of her brothers fight against each other in the same fachacta war. Another brother has daddy issues, which seems to be in fashion during these times.
I can imagine Antigone looking for a psychiatrist. “Excuse me but I need to speak to someone. I have issues, many. No, I prefer a female. Not available. Okay, an older man, perhaps? Socrates? I have girl things to speak about. I do not want to listen to a pedant extol the issues of life and death and suffering. I sort of know all that stuff already and I am not even twenty-one.”
Anyway, whether Antigone lives or dies is not the point. I think her father and his brother, Creton, are off their rockers, though.
Maybe women should stage a revolt or twenty? What are you waiting for?
Need I remind you of what the infamous Annie Oakley once said?
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