Director Robert Kelley has crafted a production that embodies Austen.

Part of the reason it plays so strongly to our sense of nostalgia for a life never experienced is that Dickens was writing to revive Christmas traditions that he feared were lost. This ups the ante, with Dickens being Dickensian, before ere the word was coined.

There's a Kevin Smith vibe to Annie Baker's presentation that soaks the affair with a gritty, slow motion tension of sorts.

At heart, Pete Campbell and Sebastian Justice are not that different. While Justice has an idiosyncratic, intelligent wit that Campbell lacks (which makes justice far more entertaining), neither character gets beyond his own narcissism.

"When you write an article, a piece of reportage, you have to stay within the limits of facts, of what really happened, [but literature] universalizes the truth." - Oriana Fallaci

Whereas the heart of pianists like Andreas Schiff (who'll be at the SFS on October 6th and 13th) lies in the smallest of perfect gestures, Ax is appreciated best as a pianist in motion, master of the grand gesture.

Davalos characterizes Faustus as a Renaissance Timothy Leary.

A new play starring ... corporate consultants? Can it possibly work? A resounding yes and yes.

That slightly heightened unreality of 1930’s camp is such a great leveler that nobody emerges enough to really capture your interest.

Beth is the take-charge one: your mother – or maybe you – keeping eyelids popped open while trying not to advertise she’s been doing it on autopilot for a mighty long time.