Among the dramatis personae in Tony Kushner’s two-play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes are a couple of non-fictional characters, Roy Cohn and Ethel Rosenberg. Cohn (1927-1986) was one of the most morally reprehensible characters in American history. I am old enough to remember him as chief counsel to Joe McCarthy’s Senate subcommittee “investigating” Communist influence and … [Read more...]
Watching paint dry on The Red Barn
Sir David Hare’s adaptations of three early Chekhov plays have been the high point of my theatre-going this year, and I went to see his new play at the National Theatre, The Red Barn, anticipating that it would give me much pleasure. It didn’t – and I think I know why. Based on La Main, a novel by Georges Simenon that he calls one of his romans durs (as opposed to the … [Read more...]