First Things RSS Feed - Kate Havard

Taking Machiavelli at his Word

Tue, 25 Nov 2014 13:48:00 -0500

Redeeming “The Prince”: The Meaning of Machiavelli’s Masterpiece
by maurizio viroli
?princeton, 208 pages, $26.95

Lear vs. Lear

Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:00:00 -0400

There is a block in Brooklyn where it storms every day—twice a day, on Sundays. It’s been storming since January, and it’ll last till May—and then the storm will spread out all over New York. On one side of the street, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Angus Jackson’s King Lear (starring Frank Langella) has just wrapped up. And across the street, Arin Arbus’s King Lear (starring Michael Pennington) opened in March.

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Coriolanus Alone

Wed, 26 Feb 2014 00:03:00 -0500

Coriolanus didn’t die for Rome’s sins. But there’s a moment early on in Josie Rourke’s production of Coriolanus that might make you wonder if she thinks he did. In it, the Romans take their bloodied hero (played by Tom Hiddleston), crown him with a thorny garland, and hoist him up above them. He looks rather Christ-like, sitting up there, even if the Christ imagery doesn’t make much sense.

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Shakespeare’s Forest

Fri, 20 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0500

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Macbeth’s Scorpions of the Mind

Thu, 14 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0500

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