theater | ZETEO

Photo of third suicide bomber behind Stade de France blasts - photo released by French police, 22 Nov 2015 - AFP; Getty Images

Numantia, Cervantes, Vicksburg, Terrorists

June 2, 2016 by William Eaton

. . . though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those who were opposed to us. — U.S. Grant, writing, years later, about the Confederate surrender at Appomattox[1] Ellos con duros estatutos fieros y con su extraña condición avara pusieron tan gran yugo a nuestros cuellos que forzados salimos […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiR • Tags: Cervantes, civil war, Jean-Paul Sartre, Roman history, Spain, terrorism, theater, Vicksburg, war

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Plato’s Shaggy and Sly Victory

May 23, 2016 by William Eaton

A comparison with a shaggy dog tale—with “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”—may help us appreciate and begin to think about an “elusive passage” in Plato’s Symposium. In Twain’s text, the narrator goes seeking news of the Reverend Leonidas W. Smiley and ends up hearing stories about an inveterate gambler named Jim Smiley. In Plato’s case, Apollodorus, who was not at a wonderful party many years prior, tells what he has heard about this party from Aristodemus, who […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiR • Tags: competition, eros, love, Mark Twain, Plato, Socrates, Symposium, theater

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Brains, Literature, Disposable Selves

January 10, 2016 by Ed Mooney

The Self is Disposable, Isn’t It? Not for most of us for most of the time. But its reality can be brought into question. There are exotic cases of apparent persons who seem to lack a self. Bureaucracies and the structures capitalism seem to deflate any rich sense of self. And the splendor of brain science swallows our better judgment about the reality of selves. My previous Zeteo post, 01.03.2016, followed the incredible story of a girl of many disguises, […]

Categories: Ed Mooney, ZiR • Tags: capitalism, literature, love, philosophy, reading, science, theater

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Theodor Herzl: Comedy and Politics Mix

November 5, 2015 by William Eaton

Comic Figures in Theodor Herzl’s Zionist Literary Writing By Alex Marshall Known first and foremost as the founder of the Zionist movement, Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) was also author of the pamphlet The Jewish State and, subsequently, a national hero in Israel. However, before his Zionism, he was a well-known literary figure in Vienna. Herzl is generally seen as a serious-minded writer and political leader, whose jokes were limited to either stage comedies with no bearing on Jewish politics, or […]

Categories: Article • Tags: comedy, fiction, Jews, theater, Theodor Herzl, Vienna, Zionism

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Playwriting: Churchill “Cloud Nine”

October 6, 2015 by William Eaton

Martin (to his wife): So I lost my erection last night not because I’m not prepared to talk, it’s just that taking in technical information is a different part of the brain and also I don’t like to feel that you do it better to yourself. I have read the Hite report. I do know that women have to learn to get their pleasure despite our clumsy attempts at expressing undying devotion and ecstasy, and that what we spent our […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiLL • Tags: comedy, playwriting, sexuality, theater, writing

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A Bad Time for Poetry

March 23, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

A few nights ago I dreamt that a close friend and I were stalking Bertolt Brecht in Paris. Since I rarely have such intellectual dreams, I took it as a sign to read some of the German writer and thinker’s work. Although Brecht is perhaps best remembered for his contributions to theater, he is also considered to be one of the greatest German poets that ever lived. Brecht’s approach to poetry, as opposed to the way in which he took on […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, History, literature, poetry, reading, theater, writing

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Shakespeare, Winter's Tale, Pearl Theater

Better pleased with madness

March 12, 2015 by William Eaton

A favorite short speech from Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale. A young prince, in love with a lovely, seeming shepherd girl (see photo above), is warned by his father’s right-hand man to take heed, “be advised.” The young man’s response echoes the human response to life in general. I am advised, he says— by my fancy: if my reason Will thereto be obedient, I have reason; If not, my senses, better pleased with madness, Do bid it welcome. The most unfortunate […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiLL • Tags: A Winter's Tale, cultural criticism, flowers, Internet, Shakespeare, theater

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Cineastas

February 24, 2015 by William Eaton

Between the invention of movies and the year 2013, approximately 400,000 films have been made worldwide. Were someone to try to watch all of these films, without a moment’s pause, it would take about 92 years. Our fictions last longer than our lives. . . . [H]ay cosas que son efímeras, las vidas, las relaciones, las familias, y otras que duran para siempre, como algunas ciudades o las grandes marcas del capitalismo. (Some things are ephemeral—things like lives, relationships, families—and […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiLL • Tags: film, Hispanic, theater

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Photo by Lloyd Mulvey shows actors Gibson Frazier (playing Anton) and Zoe Winters (playing Alina) in the Pearl Theatre’s staged reading of Oded Gross’s The Government Inspector, January 2015; directed by Lucie Tiberghien.

“We’re merely pawns in a corrupt system”

February 5, 2015 by William Eaton

The comedian, actor, songwriter, and playwright Oded Gross has done a marvelous (to include quite funny) job of updating Gogol’s classic satire of bad government: The Government Inspector. I will get right to the new text, near the beginning, when the officials of a small town realize that a government inspector is coming. ARTEMIS (The Director of Health): What does he want to inspect us for? ANTON (The Mayor): He’s traveling here to deem whether or not there’s any unnecessary […]

Categories: William Eaton, ZiLL • Tags: corruption, Gogol, government, politics, The Bible, theater