The Fantastic Mr. Fox The best writers of children’s books tend to come from rather curious backgrounds and Roald Dahl had that part of the CV down pat. A global traveler from childhood, through his life he crossed paths with royalty, movie stars and even 007 creator Ian Fleming. He wrote poetry, prose and screenplays […]
David Jervis
David Jervis is a freelance writer living in Arcata. He prefers he/him pronouns.
Posted inArts + Scene
A Shakespearean Tragedy-Comedy Cocktail
The Winter’s Tale The canon of William Shakespeare is mostly discussed by superfans and laypeople alike as split between dramas — be they blood-soaked epics of kings or more intimate affairs — and comic frolics. There are a few that can’t be filed away so neatly. The Winter’s Tale, now onstage at North Coast Repertory […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Border Dispute
Neighbors can be odd. Next-door neighbors even more so. You’re not under the same roof, like siblings. But you are expected to get along with them, albeit for reasons of geography rather than genetics, and, like family, you don’t always get to choose them. In the comedy Native Gardens by Karen Zacarias, the first offering […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Epic Battles
Ripcord David Lindsay-Abaire’s Ripcord, the current production at Redwood Curtain, reunites three local favorites, director Cassandra Hesseltine and lead players Peggy Metzger and Susan Abbey, who teamed up for Lindsay-Abaire’s excellent Good People at Redwood Curtain earlier this year. It’s a dream team that’s clearly at home with the touching and humorous perspective on life […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Not in Kansas
Director Victor Fleming’s 1939 film adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, when one thinks about it, may be the most famous ever made. Its characters, lyrics and even throwaway lines have endured as iconic for eight decades, entered the global lexicon and, in some cases, even become rather tired clichés. It’s possible modern audiences don’t […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Wilde’s Ernest Wit
Oscar Wilde was a world-class wit, back when such a term seemed more relevant, and he lived just 46 years until his early death in 1900. A poet and playwright, he’s someone whose canon of published and staged works doesn’t live on and endure so much as, well, the things he said and wrote in […]
Posted inArts + Scene
#FamiliesBelongTogether
Reviews THE INCREDIBLES 2. Sequels, remakes, reboots and “remaginings” of movies happen faster than any good soul can keep up. That’s what makes the arrival of The Incredibles 2 so remarkable: Does it seem like a long time since the original — a wonderfully entertaining film — arrived on the scene, or is it you? […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Hedwig Rocks
As a bridge between the rock, pop and soul music of the 1960s and the explosion of punk in the late 1970s, and the myriad subgenres that followed, there was glam rock. Bigger in its scope and impact in the UK, but by no means limited to across the pond, among its flashy and tuneful […]
Posted inArts + Scene
On the Rocks
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? looms large in the collective mind. Born as a Tony Award-winning play from the pen of the great Edward Albee in 1962, it was adapted for the screen four years later. And this is how many people, myself included, were first introduced to this story — with Elizabeth Taylor and […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Crowns and Coke
The meaning of the word “Shakespearian” is elusive when tossed around by wags and pundits, and it’s occasionally used with a little laziness. It’s dispatched to label something as being multi-layered, and also looking deep into the souls of people who are contradictory and perhaps doomed of their own making. King Lear has great fame, […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Circus within a Circus
Plays offer a look into a different era, with modern productions taking on material written centuries ago. But Pippin affords a chance to see a dual track on that: The era in which it was first staged is the early 1970s. To see it now is a glimpse into that era, but also into a […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Conversations Across Time and Space
My good friend Tom is very much a man of science and mathematics, and also the smartest person I know. I talk with him about all manner of things and while he may have a way of viewing the entire universe in terms of equations and probability, he also sees connections down to art and […]