Sometimes, love and romance are fantastical tales of immortal connections reignited through the experience of reincarnation. There also is the mystifying sense of love at first sight. And, then there is déjà vu, that sensation we are familiar with in our dreams but also some of us have experienced it in real life when we … Read more
The remarkable Sackerson theater company’s latest production A Brief Waltz in a Little Room: 23 Short Plays about Walter Eyer is one of the most incisive renderings of the consequential meanings and impact of a sense of place in Utah. Since Utah was settled more than 170 years ago, an all-abiding cult of perfectionism has shadowed, … Read more
Famous or unhistoric, the individual embodies a convoluted, mysterious existence. Fortunately but stubbornly so, we have finally given up our allegiance to the grand ‘great man’ style narrative that took hold in the 19th century. We all have our eccentricities, secrets, conflicts, fears, shames and yearnings – each capable of transcending the mundane days or … Read more
In Hindsight, Sackerson’s premiere of Morag Shepherd’s newest play that is performed in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City at indoor and outdoor locations, Ford (Connor Nelis Johnson) and Chase (Tyler Fox) compete to win the heart of Lorraine (McKenzie Steele Foster). Two men could not be more different. Ford is playful, unabashedly romantic … Read more
Look at any display ad touting a city’s downtown district. The images focus less on a venue such as a restaurant, shop or bar than on the people’s faces. It is about the convivial, romantic experience of city life. The spaces of downtown are empty until they are filled with the stories of the people … Read more
More than 50 years ago, Susan Sontag’s essay Against Interpretation became one of her most famous and widely scrutinized writings. Sontag wrote in the last line of the essay, “In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art,” – a declaration that resonated in her deep admiration for Franz Kafka’s work and, in … Read more
In one of opera’s most famous and most captivating arias, Tosca sings Vissi d’arte, which translates literally to “I lived for art.” The aria from this Giacomo Puccini opera is an anguished prayer because Tosca, a singer, faces the most impossible choice. To save her lover (the painter Cavaradossi) from the death sentence, she must … Read more
The challenge in any holiday season is to find fresh entertainment that carries a theme without resorting to conventional tropes or clichés. Two local companies have offered their own version of a holiday program not set necessarily in the season but with a spirit that fits perfectly into the celebration: Sackerson’s ongoing production of The … Read more
Two local theatrical companies recently staged productions of locally written adaptations of two of Shakespeare’s greatest plays. One is the witty The Weyward Sisters, inspired by Macbeth, as staged by PYGmalion Productions and the other is Ten Deaths of Hamlet, a one-actor adaptation featuring 16 characters, presented by Sackerson. PYGMALION PRODUCTIONS: THE WEYWARD SISTERS There’s … Read more
In a 2003 lecture sponsored by the U.S. Library of Congress, Harold Bloom, the American literary critic, said Hamlet, Shakespeare’s quintessential tragedy for the theater, still is “the most experimental play ever written.” He added, “You can make of the play ‘Hamlet’ and the protagonist pretty much what you will, whether you are playgoer or … Read more