Curlew River

October 23, 2021

Opera (1964)
A Parable for Church Performance, Op. 71
Music by Benjamin Britten
Libretto by William Plomer
Enigma Chamber Opera
The Cathedral Church of St. Paul
138 Tremont Street, Boston, MA
October 22-23, 2021
An intimate and wonderfully performed version of the short, allegorical liturgical opera by the great British composer.

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The Merchant of Venice

October 14, 2021

Play (1599)
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Igor Golyak
Actors’ Shakespeare Project
Boston Center for the Arts
South End, Boston
September 23 – October 17, 2021
At first, a rambunctious take-off on the Shakespearean original, contextualizing the interior drama with a heavy dose of pantomime, but ultimately tonally complex and attentive to the problematic nature of the play.

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The Tempest

August 8, 2021

Play (1611)
by William Shakespeare
Directed by Steven Maler

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
Boston Common, Boston
July 21 – August 8, 2021
A beautifully rendered, trim but energetic, version of the great late Shakespeare play, expertly tailored for an outdoor pandemic crowd on Boston Common.

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In The Heights

June 10, 2021

Film, Musical (2021)
Directed by Jon M. Chu
Based on the musical stage play by Quiara Alegría Hudes and
Lin-Manuel Miranda
A hard not-to-like extravaganza about Washington Heights, Manhattan with Bollywood-type dance scenes and unexpected special effects, based on the 2008 musical by the Hamilton wiz Lin-Manuel Miranda.

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Gowns and Pajamas
Watching the 2021 Virtual Golden Globes

February 28, 2021

Television, Film
NBC
February 28, 2021
By Tim Jackson
A wry look at this year’s pandemic virtual Golden Globes, strung together from a lot of different celebrity living rooms.

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Nomadland

February 19, 2021

Film (2021)
Written and directed by
Chloé Zhao
With Frances McDormand
An extended meditation on loss of love, work and home, and modes of survival afterwards, with a penetrating and deeply affecting lead performance by McDormand.

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Promising Young Woman

December 25, 2020

Film (2021)
Written and directed by
Emerald Fennell
With Carey Mulligan
A feminist revenge thriller about a former medical student who has lost a dear friend because of sexual abuse. Particularly worth seeing because of Mulligan’s performance.

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Mank

December 4, 2020

Film (2020)
Directed by David Fincher
Screenplay by Jack Fincher
Netflix
With Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried
A dramatized bit of interesting film history about the writing of the American film classic Citizen Kane

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