Sarah Bernhardt (an intense and commanding Janet McTeer) struggles with her decision to play Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” not because of self-doubt or weakness, but because she is not sure William Shakespeare wrote the tragedy all that well or fully understood the play’s protagonist. During rehearsals for the play and for Bernhardt’s groundbreaking role as Hamlet, she argues with her cast about…
“I’m Mlima of the Great Plains. Eldest of my clan. I was tracked for many days, taken by a poison arrow. Why are there so many of you?! Mumbi? Koko? Do you hear me?” Mighty Mlima, “Kenya’s most famous elephant,” – the old, large elephant “with extraordinary tusks” – is murdered for those tusks by the Somali poachers Raman and…
The highly anticipated new play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Ayad Akhtar entitled “JUNK” – referring to the bonds sold in the 1980s by Machiavellian inside traders – does tend to sacrifice intrigue for the sake of entertainment. The plot centers around the fictional junk bond king Robert Merkin (played with unscrupulous charisma by Steven Pasquale), as he manipulates his…