THE VICAR'S KNICKERS

posted by James Reel

    In the latest Tucson Weekly, my review of an English farce at Live Theatre Workshop, wherein at least one man of the cloth runs around in his underwear:

    The sole measure of a farce's success: Its production is so fast and exuberant that you never have a chance to nitpick over little things that don't make sense. Of course some things won't make sense; just shut up and hang on, and let the cast spin you around.
    That's exactly what happens in Live Theatre Workshop's production of Philip King's See How They Run, a British farce that's been unashamedly escapist since its first performance in 1944. You'd barely know that this show opened when Britain was in the middle of a war in which its major cites were being blitzed, even though the script includes some wartime references.

GEOGRAPHY 101, POLYGLOT EDITION

posted by James Reel

    I was reading an item in the (Manchester) Guardian quoting the German publication Der Tagesspiegel on the overabundance of music festivals, and suddenly felt lost. According to the Guardian’s translation, Der Tagesspiegel posits that “the festivals in Bayreuth and Salzburg are the most prominent examples of an increasingly close network of festivals that now stretch across Europe from the south Pole to Andalusia.” And sure enough, in the original German it’s “das sich in Europa inzwischen vom südlichen Polarkreis ins heißeste, hinterste Andalusien spannt.”
    From the South Pole to Andalusia? Hmm. Those would be festivals stretching across Africa, not Europe. Hey, guys—the North Pole is the one at the top of the map.