Fictional characters are fictional, which may not seem a profound observation, but real people can be, and to some extent must be, substantially fictional, too, because it is impossible to know them perfectly. Lizzie Borden was unquestionably a real historical figure, found innocent of brutally murdering her father and stepmother with an ax in a sensational […]
The 14th annual French Film Festival at Salve Regina University screens six films Sunday, Mar 17, to Friday, Mar 29, all open to the public. Films include: Un beau soleil intérieur (“Let the Sunshine In”), 2017, by Claire Denis, starring Juliette Binoche as a woman in middle age who has relationships with difficult men; the […]
Escaped Alone is a puzzling and strange one-act by British playwright Caryl Churchill, now in her 80s and resting on her laurels 57 years after her first play for BBC radio. It involves a group of three women in their 70s – Sally (Karen MacDonald), Vi (Marya Lowry) and Lena (Carol Drewes) – who are […]
Currently, the right to abortion is protected under landmark US Supreme Court decisions, Roe v. Wade (and its lesser-known companion Doe v. Bolton decided on the same day) in 1973 and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992. “Viability” is defined to occur when a fetus is sufficiently developed to live, with artificial aid, outside the […]
In its 21st year, the 2019 Providence French Film Festival, Feb 21–Mar 1, for the first time will screen all of its events on the Brown University campus at the Granoff Center for the Arts, 154 Angell St, PVD, according to Daniel Kamil, festival programming director, because its traditional venue, the Cable Car Cinema, closed. All screenings remain open […]
Phil Olson is not a well-known playwright, and most of his output has involved rewriting classics into the rather hyperlocal Bunyan Bay, Minnesota, where the main activities are being really cold, complaining about being really cold and ice fishing. I’m not exaggerating: A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol is a rewrite of Dickens’ A Christmas […]
It’s not surprising that academic researchers have tried to define and even quantify love, but it is somewhat surprising that they only have been doing so since tentative explorations in the 1970s and more substantially in the 1980s. Leading researchers on the subject Clyde and Susan Hendrick devoted a chapter to “Love” in Liking, Loving, […]
In its 10th consecutive year, the Providence Children’s Film Festival, February 15-24, offers 27 different feature films and short film packages at a number of venues throughout the city, including the Avon Cinema, the Gilder Center for the Arts, the Metcalf Auditorium, the Woodman Center at Moses Brown, the Providence Athenæum and the RISD Auditorium, […]
Still the second leading cause of death in the United States, cancer is evolving to become a disease of socio-economic status, according to a major report published Jan 8 by researchers at the American Cancer Society. Cervical cancer, which is highly preventable by HPV vaccination, is about twice as likely to kill women in poor […]
There is an old joke that there are three kinds of people: Those who make things happen, those who let things happen, and those who ask, “What happened?” This is a play about that third group. The three characters in This Is Our Youth at Burbage Theatre inspire a certain affectionate empathy in me, since […]