In the same way that the children’s book War Horse could never be harnessed onstage, Mark Haddon’s 2003 novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time — the story of an autistic boy’s struggles and eventual triumph over the challenges of everyday life — would seem an unlikely choice for theatrical adaptation. The two plays are not haphazardly compared, for both were … [Read more...]
Weekend arts picks: Aug. 29-31
Art: Industrial man has made a mess of things, and while there are industrial ways to get some of it cleaned up, we have to leave it to the artists to find beauty even in our most careless factory effusions. Opening today at the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County in Lake Worth is Re-purposed/Re-Seen, an exhibit of, well, stuff that has been recycled and reworked into objects … [Read more...]
Peace-inspired piano duo leaves hard-to-please audience shortchanged
Invited to come together in 2008, in a concert for peace in Oslo, Norway, Yaron Kohlberg and Bishara Haroni, gifted Israeli and Palestinian pianists, respectively, decided to concertize together on a more permanent basis in 2011. Active in bringing the two opposing factions closer in peace, they have played around the globe, forming a cultural club for both nationalities in … [Read more...]
The View From Home 50: An Asian crime saga, Hitchock redux, and a baffling Czech epic
For an Asian crime thriller, a continental genre rich with tough guys who know their way around firearms, it’s refreshing to watch a hero who is chaste, square and can’t throw a punch, let alone handle a gun. This is the case with Young-Jak (Kang-woo Kim), the errand-boy and unwitting protagonist of The Taste of Money (IFC, $22.48 DVD), the latest cult film from South Korea’s … [Read more...]
Authentic bluegrass, by way of Switzerland
The decline of major recording labels may be the most famous byproduct of the online music retail and radio booms. But another result has been the cross-pollination of genres, the categorical descriptions that were largely created for now-dwindling record stores and musical airwaves in the first place. A versatile case in point is the Kruger Brothers, a North … [Read more...]