Vincent: A Portrait of an Artist and his Brother in Turmoil
Vincent. Written by Leonard Nimoy, yes, that Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) of Star Trek fame! Before delving into the play and one of the most memorable performances I’ve seen in…
A New Understanding of the Founding of Rome
Much more than a book about Roman theatre, this book represents a seismic shift in our understanding about the origin of Rome. For many if not most scholars, this new…
SEARED, not Pan-Fried!
Playwright Theresa Rebeck has cooked up a delicious play. Seared is a main course of drama, with a side dish of comedy. Even though you will not be dining at…
Literary Extravagance
Public Discontent & The Trap of a Technocrat. That is the subheadline in a 2025 article by Brian Connelly. “The technocrat’s trap,” he wrote, “refers to inherent issues of governing…
How to Make a Judge Angry
Photo: a marble bust of Cicero “The existence of a man of immense authority whose anger has political currency threatens the survival of the Republic.” No, this is not a…
Modern Revolutions Crave a Leviathan
This book by Dan Edelstein (Professor of French at Stanford Univ.) surveys the concept of what a revolution meant from ancient to recent times. A key finding he makes is…
Applying Comics Theory to Ancient texts
Over the centuries, the texts that have been rescued by time from ancient Greece and Rome have been studied in many ways. As human ingenuity is never lacking, Natalie Swain…
Feel my forehead: that’s my brain working!
The headline is a quote from a character in a play being staged in Austin this month. The brain has to do a lot of work to really understand it,…
Homer’s Iliad 2.0
Anyone with even a passing interest in ancient Greece, or the foundation of Western literature, has read Homer’s Iliad. That original, from the mists of time more than 4,000 years…
Concerning Levels of Horniness: Burlesque in Austin
Burlesque has a long history, and it is very much alive in Austin. As a comedic and exaggerated stage performance originating in Europe four centuries ago, it became popular in…