FOUR SWITCHES
1. VENT
I can feel the Christ inside me with his side cut open
so he can breathe like a fish
like someone who has been choking on a small bone, maybe
a tiny part of another animal’s vertebrae,
when a friend grabs him from behind, forces
him to lunge, the bone flying out into the restaurant’s candlelight.
And I feel [...]
Monthly Archives: February 2010
Poetry by Matthew Dickman
February 23, 2010 – 11:32 am
Pat Kinevane’s “Forgotten”
February 23, 2010 – 10:27 am
Every once in a while, if we are lucky, we stumble upon a work of art so staggering that it whirls about our memories long after our initial encounter. Something about it, even if we can’t pinpoint what that “something” is (which, of course, only adds to its intrigue), resonates. A most curious kabuki-based play, [...]
Dickens’ “Hard Times”
February 15, 2010 – 3:58 pm
This week, the Pearl Theatre parts its curtains for Stephen Jeffrey’s page-to-stage adaptation of Hard Times by Charles Dickens. After sitting through the production, I contemplated suggesting an addendum to the Playbill. Perhaps, a WARNING on the cover: “This play is long, and the chairs are Amish in comfort level.” But, I realize that such [...]
David Mamet’s “Race”
February 15, 2010 – 10:10 am
James Spader, David Alan Grier and Richard Thomas in Race.
David Mamet’s newest drama, Race, currently showing at the Ethel Barrymore, begins with black attorney Henry Brown (David Alan Grier), of the high profile law firm Lawson and Brown, lecturing his potential client, the white and wealthy Charles Strickland (Richard Thomas), about black people. Charles has [...]
Sam Shepard’s “Day Out of Days”
February 4, 2010 – 1:56 pm
Photo by Brigitte Lacombe
Surely it would be blasphemy to suggest that the strongest suit in Sam Shepard’s fecund, polymath deck is his prose. His plays have won him the Pulitzer (“Buried Child”). His acting has garnered an Oscar nomination (The Right Stuff). His direction on stage and screen is highly respected, or better. But it [...]
My Mother by Kirsten Andersen
February 1, 2010 – 4:16 pm
My Mother
She is bent at the waist at a west coast aquarium,
reclined in the daylight of Brooklyn, sober in her role
as a witness to the state, she is dancing at the club
on public television. She sinks her nails into my neck
at the police station, when I am caught stealing lip balm
from the pharmacy, she is [...]
