Flag Wavering: A concerned citizen takes a not-so-united stand on patriotism
Marseilles has always been a notorious city. In recent times, right-wing politicians, upscale developers and struggling immigrants have been added to the French seaport’s traditional mix of seafarers, prostitutes, gangsters and black-market profiteers. It’s also Robert Guediguian’s birthplace and, in The Town Is Quiet, the writer-director examines the myriad sorrows beneath its sun-drenched Mediterranean façade.…
Portrait of the Artist? La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl, by David Huddle
The provocative title of David Huddle’s new book, La Tour Dreams of the Wolf Girl, is a little confusing at first. Is “dreams” a noun or a verb? Does it refer to the dreams themselves or the act of dreaming? Huddle, an English professor at the University of Vermont, explores both in his smart and…
Refugee Status: Once Upon a Time… and Never Again
At a rehearsal for the upcoming play, Once Upon a Time… and Never Again, an actor shows the cast how to flee sniper fire. “You’re trying to trick him,” he says, mimicking staggered sprints across the stage. He didn’t pick this up in acting school. He lived it on the war-torn streets of Bosnia. “Reality…
Pulling Their Wait: Waiting for Godot
In the Vermont Stage Company production of Samuel Beckett’s absurdist masterpiece, Waiting For Godot, director Mark Nash ingeniously invites audience participation. As they enter the black-box FlynnSpace, theatergoers are instructed to put on the cotton “gowns” found on their seats — “to become part of the scenery,” attendants explain. Once dutifully dressed, the audience becomes…
Carved in Stone: Newly discovered artifacts from an Italian stonecutter’s life put a human face on the Vermont Granite Museum
A small, leather-bound Bible caught Adele Dienno’s attention while she was browsing in a local second-hand shop three weeks ago. It had been published in 1889, the text was in Italian and Catholic Mass cards were inserted here and there. Then she noticed a lock of dark brown human hair pressed between two pages. “This…
Outrage!
That was the word chosen by “Vermont This Week” host Christopher Graff last weekend to describe the contents of e-mails from three very angry viewers of the previous week’s show. They were incensed by yours truly’s use of the word “Taliban” to describe the activist group of religious fundamentalist conservatives who have taken over the…
Exile Marks the Spot
I woke up early a few days ago and saw scrawled on the pad next to the bed: "Dostoyevsky, Brothers Karamazov: Everything is permitted." What could it mean? Flying out of New York Ñ I speak metaphorically, since I actually went no farther than Connecticut, on the train Ñ I stopped in Darien to see…
Rewriting History
When young authors make history, it’s usually for their unconventional ideas or their reckless, off-the-page exploits. Not so with Shaun Bryer, a 20-year-old junior at St. Michael’s College. Bryer is the author of Around Morristown (Arcadia, $19.99, 128 pages), a paperback pictorial history of Morristown, Vermont. He looks more like a choirboy than a hell-raiser.…
Flick Chick
FROM RUSSIA WITH SEX We live in a time of e-mail-order brides, a gambit that alternately charms and grates in Birthday Girl. This new romantic comedy with dark thriller overtones comes from a confluence of Butterworth brothers: playwright Jez directed and co-wrote the script with Tom, while Steve serves as a producer. The indie merits…
