Tag Archives: the play is the thing

“Our revels now are ended…”

Posted on February 28, 2023 by smellincoffee

This past weekend I was privileged to see one of the final performances of Greta Lambert at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, where she performed the role of Prospero in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. I’d never seen or even read “The Tempest” … Continue reading →

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Monroeville and TKAM

Posted on February 27, 2023 by smellincoffee

Monroeville and the Stage Production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” © 2023 John M. Williams160 pages The first time I ever visited Monroeville, I had the dumb luck to arrive on a day when the courthouse-turned-museum was hosting a theatrical … Continue reading →

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Fools and Mortals

Posted on January 12, 2018 by smellincoffee

Fools and Mortals© 2017 Bernard Cornwell384 pages Brevity is the soul of wit, so here’s an attempt at a quick  review.  Bernard Cornwell usually writes war novels, and he’s magnificent at it. But he surely gets tired of it, and … Continue reading →

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Rossum’s Universal Robots

Posted on October 17, 2017 by smellincoffee

R.U.R© 1920 Karel Capek120 pages ALQUIST: . Has Nana got a prayer book?HELENA Yes, a big thick one.ALQUIST And has it got prayers for various occasions? Against thunderstorms? Against illness?HELENA Against temptations, against floods!––ALQUIST But not against progress?HELENA I don’t … Continue reading →

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This week: MURDER! and leftovers

Posted on October 11, 2016 by smellincoffee

From The Montgomery Advertiser.  Last night I enjoyed the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s final performance of “The Mousetrap”, based off of Christie’s “Three Blind Mice”.  (The play is still running in the west end, of course, sixty four years and counting…) … Continue reading →

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Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

Posted on October 8, 2016 by smellincoffee

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child© 2016 Jack Thorne, J.K. Rowling, and John Tiffany320 pages Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the book young adults who grew up with Harry have been waiting for….though it’s not quite what they … Continue reading →

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Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol

Posted on November 23, 2015 by smellincoffee

Another week gone, another entry from the 2015 reading challenge: earlier I received “Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol” and couldn’t help reading it waaaay too early. It didn’t take long, being a fifty-page play that’s essentially a retelling of “A Christmas … Continue reading →

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A Man for All Seasons

Posted on October 3, 2015 by smellincoffee

“A Man For All Seasons”© 1966 Robert Holt163 pages “…the king wants either Sir Thomas More to bless his marriage or Sir Thomas More destroyed.” “They seem odd alternatives, Secretary.”             The king wants a son, … Continue reading →

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Saint Joan

Posted on September 28, 2015 by smellincoffee

Saint Joan© 1924 George Bernard Shaw160 pages              In the darkest hour of the Hundred Years War, a teenage girl re-inspired both a defeated nation and a despondent king to fight again for what was … Continue reading →

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The Importance of Being Earnest

Posted on March 19, 2015 by smellincoffee

“The Importance of Being Earnest” © 1895 Oscar Wilde The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility! (Algernon, Act I.)          Algernon and Earnest … Continue reading →

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