Category — Critic’s Corner

Upon entering the theater to see Waltz with Bashir, I was very unsure as to what I should expect. I knew that it was an animated film but not much more than that. As the lights went dim and the first scene began the audience is thrust into a state of terror as a pack of rabid dogs tear across the screen. This sudden entrance into a particular scene is typical of this movie as it chronicles a man’s search for his lost memories regarding the war in Lebanon that he was involved in. The story is told in a somewhat abstract fashion as it continuously jumps from the narrator’s life as an older man to his memories from the war as a young soldier. [Read more →]

The International Center of Photography is home to many examples of excellent photography. Various exhibitions line the walls and one of these is by the renowned photographer, Susan Meiselas. Ms. Meiselas took a series of pictures of the conflict in Nicaragua in the late 1970’s. It takes a special kind of person to take pictures on a field of battle because of the vast amount of risk involved. It is not exactly safe to go around snapping pictures of armed factions who are currently at war. Ms. Meiselas was able to not only document the conflict but to capture the emotions of the combatants. She took many photos that showed the humanity of war and the conditions that people find themselves in. [Read more →]

http://www.stevenkasher.com/

Rebellions against authority – government, parents, elders, and everything else were ubiquitous in the 1960’s. David Fenton, a teenager at this time, was an underground news photographer. He photographed the anti-war protests, civil rights rallies, and concerts. Now, forty years later, in the Steven Kasher Gallery on 23^rd St., these photographs are displayed in an exhibit called “Eye of the Revolution”. I found it interesting to see pictures from this time, when my parents were growing up, and to compare what they have told me to what I see in actual photographs from the period.

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The movie starts out with one of the characters being pursued by ravaging dogs racing down empty streets and alleys. As the dogs run, mothers cling to their children and people jump out of their way.  This is the recurring dream of a man who has been through war; he is pursued by every dog he shot at the entrances to the Lebanon villages. [Read more →]

Cuesta del plomo, hillside outside Managua-a well known site of many assassinations carried out by the National Guard

Susan Meiselas is a photographer best known for her committed coverage of political conflicts in Central America during the 1970s and 80s.  She was very concerned with issues of nationalism and identity.  Three of her most famous projects are Carnival Strippers (1972-1976), Nicaragua (1978-2004), and Kurdistan (1991-present).  Currently, her works from these projects are exhibited in New York’s International Center of Photography, to which we took a class trip.  [Read more →]

Lincoln Center Theater’s Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific is the first “Broadway” revival of the show since its opening nearly 60 years ago. As one enters the theater, there is a script spread across the stage, upon which are projected the first few sentences of James Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific,” the book upon which the show was based: “I wish I could tell you about the South Pacific. The way it actually was. The endless ocean. The infinite specks of coral we called islands. Coconut palms nodding gracefully toward the ocean. Reefs upon which waves broke into spray, and inner lagoons, lovely beyond description. I wish I could tell you about the sweating jungle, the full moon rising behind the volcanoes, and the waiting. The waiting. The timeless, repetitive waiting.” [Read more →]

Tovah Feldshuh in Irena's Vow

When I read the script to “Irena’s Vow,” I imagined it produced quite differently.  Since the directors beamed it’s a “one person show,” I imagined it to be acted by only that one character. However, it was relatively different. “Irena’s Vow” is a play by Dan Gordon, produced in the Baruch Performing Arts Center. It is about a Polish girl who hides twelve Jews during the Holocaust in the house where she works, the house of the highest ranked Nazi general, Rugemer. [Read more →]

The Voices of Iraq Veterans

In Conflict is a play that gives voice to the stories of tragedy and triumph experienced by seventeen Iraq War veterans. They are the men and women from all over the country, of different backgrounds, various ranks, and different sexual orientations. These are the people that represent America. When I went to the play, I didn’t think I would be too interested since I thought I knew what war was like, from the action thrillers that get the top spots in box offices all across the world, and all the books that mention war.  I did not expect to be so moved by these real life stories of young men and women like me.  I also did not expect these stories to make me laugh or make me so sad. [Read more →]

Robert Oppenheimer in Dr. Atomic

The Manhattan Project was one of the most secretive projects in the history of the United States. It took place during World War II and its purpose was to create a bomb by splitting atoms apart. This project was a success and created one of the most devastating bombs ever used by mankind, the atomic bomb. John Adam’s Dr. Atomic at the Metropolitan Opera is an opera about the birth of the atomic bomb and the technology, science, power and responsibility of the whole world on the scientists’ shoulders. [Read more →]

Matt Sax in CLAY

CLAY is a one-man hip-hop musical written and performed by Matt Sax.  It is a story about a boy named Clifford whose mother kills herself and whose father finds another woman who Clifford gradually comes to have an affair with. He finally escapes the torments of his own home and finds a mentor in the back of a bookstore, Sir John, a man of words, a poetry slam. He teaches him how to use words, and how to express himself.  In one of the funniest scenes of the show, Sir John finds Clifford to be replicating the usual themes of rap songs rather than saying what’s really on his mind. “You ever met a prostitute before?” he asks after Clifford has ended a song.  “Um, no.” [Read more →]