A chorus line with wolf heads and cartoon gartered legs; a dazzling psychedelic explosion of flowers, fairies, and butterflies; and Terry Gilliam-style cog-filled heads. Chinese dragon-serpents chasing their own tails; spear-carrying monkeys; and an aria-singing spider woman. Welcome to the crazy world of Komische Oper Berlin’s The Magic Flute. Co-directed by Barrie Kosky and 1927 […]

Ex Machina’s 887 at the Edinburgh International Festival sparks fond memories and new resolutions for Michael Begg My good friend Dimitri sent me a line from Moscow two nights ago. It was in response to a letter I had sent to him indicating that I had some difficult decisions to make. Decisions involving employment, and […]

I came home from the play and looked out my copy of the novel.  It is hard to believe how yellow the pages have grown – more brown towards the edges. The glue in the spine has become brittle, so the book can only be opened with great care, and probably not with a view […]

En Avant, Marche! had me at ‘Hello’. A portly, grey haired man shuffles onstage holding a portable CD player. He wanders offstage and pulls in an extension cable, plugs in his CD player, skips to the right track, takes a pair of cymbals, and prepares to join in at the right moment. The anticipation is […]

Suited in a contemporary new translation by Anne Carson that is as stark, cutting, and brutal as the modern world this Antigone lives in, Ivo van Hove’s production at the Edinburgh International Festival descends with the full weight of looming darkness of Sophocles’s classic. A bold circle of light that beams through the center of […]