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When I joined the Sydney Morning Herald as a cadet journalist in 1981, Geraldine Brooks was just ahead and already a dashing role model. While I measured up photographs with a ruler and pencil for the next days newspaper, she was paddling a raft down the Franklin River with the Australian Democrats leader, Don Chipp, and filing news stories that would help save the Tasmanian wilderness from a hydroelectric dam.

Back in the office, Brooks was easy to like, a gamine figure with a bubbling laugh, bottomless curiosity, and an appetite for fiery sambal and moral causes. Soon she was off again, swept by a scholarship to New Yorks Columbia University and marriage to American journalist Tony Horwitz into a life of adventure and homesickness. Shes been riding the rapids of success ever since, from war correspondent to international bestselling author, honoured with a Pulitzer Prize and the Order of Australia.

And here we are, women in our 60s, talking via Zoom between Sydney and Marthas Vineyard. Brooks is in the living room of her 18th-century hobbit house in an island village of Massachusetts. Her younger son, Bizu, is upstairs studying for his final school exams. Her chocolate labrador, Bear, is asleep under her feet and her mare, Valentine, is outside with a pasture mate, Screaming Hot Wings. Its her elder son Nathaniels 26th birthday and he calls from Boston, where he works as a biotech venture capitalist. (I cant say that with a straight face, Brooks says.)

There are always cracks in what looks like a perfect life. Horwitzs sudden death three years ago opened an abyss from which Brooks had to crawl to finish Horse, a novel infused with love, loss and shared history. Now theres a book to promote and Brooks, ever the trouper, reminds me her journalism career began not in glory but in cadet hell.

Geraldine Brooks only started riding at the age of 53.Credit:Randi Baird

Her first job at the Herald in 1979 was recording details of horses performances at Sydney racecourses. As well as enduring a fiesta of bum-pinching in the office, she got by on little sleep as she went on Fridays from the gallops to the trots to the last refuge of the desperate punter, the dogs and back on Saturday.

It wasnt reporting, she says. It was just taking down reams of information about every horse in every single race where they were at the turn, where they were at the finish, what the odds started at, what they went out to and you had to be very accurate, so it was very good training. I see that now from a distance, but at the time it was just a forced march. And the thing that was very disturbing to someone who loves animals was seeing how many horses got injured in the course of my time.

After three months, she hoped to move to some civilised bastion like letters [to the editor] but she was sent back for another three months. I thought I might have to quit. But I didnt, of course.

Why, she wondered, was her degree in politics and art history being wasted at the racetrack? The answer emerges in her sixth novel.

The horse was so sure-footed, we were cantering along cliff edges ... It was an exquisite experience.

Brooks has a knack for writing historical fiction that plugs into the zeitgeist and pumps blood into subjects that turn out to be timeless. She couldnt know that her first novel, Year of Wonders, about an English village devastated by plague, fear and superstition in 1665, would see a spike in sales after 20 years when COVID-19 caused a replay.

Horse imaginatively fills out the true stories of a famous 19th-century American racehorse, his black enslaved trainer and the artist who immortalised them in paintings, finding echoes in the fragile complexity of race relations in the United States today.

Geraldine Brooks during her reporting days at The Sydney Morning Herald and, right, the cover of her new novel Horse.Credit:Anton Cermak

Brooks had not ridden a horse until, at the age of 53, she attended a writers conference at a Santa Fe ranch, where a wrangler urged her on to an experienced mount that would not let her fall.

The next day I went with this gorgeous Cherokee guide on a gorgeous horse on a ride through the arroyos of New Mexico, and the horse was so sure-footed, we were cantering along cliff edges and it seemed completely unremarkable to me. It was an exquisite experience.

At home a friend offered her a horse for her five acres, she took riding lessons and became a devotee. So her ears twitched at a lunch when she heard a Smithsonian official talking about Lexington, the fastest racehorse of the 19th century and the countrys most prolific sire to winning horses. Neglected for decades in an attic of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, his skeleton had recently been restored and put on display at the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky.

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Brooks had just published her fourth novel, Calebs Crossing, based on the story of the first Native American to study at Harvard, and was wrestling with her fifth, The Secret Chord, a fictionalised life of the Bibles King David.

Impatient to write about Lexington, she says, I describe it as seeing the handsome guy across the room whos giving you the eye but you have to leave with the one what brung you The minute Horse moves in, like the handsome guy, he starts dropping his towels in the hall. Every project becomes less romantic and less easy once it moves in with you.

Horse took her back to the Civil War era of March, the novel that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for a story inspired by Louisa May Alcotts Little Women and her fathers military service. After his racing career, Lexington also served bravely in the war that ended slavery. Then she learnt about the history of the black horsemen who were invisible but essential to the success of the racehorses that made white plantation owners wealthy.

Once you knew it, theres no way not to write about it, and once youre writing about it you cant write about racism in this country as though its something done and dusted and over.

Donald Trumps presidency brought racial inequality to the fore, fuelling the Black Lives Matter movement. Trump is not named in the novel but Brooks says: The thumping noise of the times really influenced the writing of the book it had to, I think. We had eight years of Obama and then we had Trump. Its just like we had Reconstruction and then we had Jim Crow. The country can only take so much change and then theres a backlash, and were living with the backlash.

Her narrative moves between 1850s Kentucky and Louisiana, 1950s New York, and 2019 Washington DC. She writes with affection about Lexington and Jarret, the young enslaved horse trainer, and gives voice to Thomas Scott, a real artist who often painted Lexington and unusually put black Jarret, his groom in a portrait. A century later, one painting reached the hands of Manhattan art dealer Martha Jackson.

Geraldine Brooks at work in her 18th-century hobbit house. Work offered solace following the death of her husband, Tony Horwitz.Credit:Randi Baird

In the contemporary story Theo, son of Nigerian diplomats, is an art historian who finds a painting of a horse among a neighbours garbage, and Australian-born Jess is a scientist working at the Smithsonian to identify the skeleton of a horse. Fate, of course, will bring them together in a complicated dance of forensics and attraction. Delicate ground for a white woman, Brooks knows, but she has watched her son Bizu, adopted from Ethiopia, navigate his way through American society.

In May 2019, halfway through writing the novel, Brooks received a phone call with the unimaginable news that Horwitz had collapsed on a Maryland street and died in hospital of cardiac arrest. He was 60 and on tour for his book Spying on the South, retracing the travels of Frederick Law Olmsted, who was an undercover reporter in the Antebellum South before becoming the designer of New Yorks Central Park.

Brooks could not write for a year, scrambling to work out aspects of their life that Horwitz had managed. She was helped by a friends advice, taken from US Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Do your work. It wont be your best work, but it will be good work and it will be what saves you. COVID gave her solitude to finish Horse and grief added a minor chord. It breaks your heart open to make you more in tune with suffering, so I think that it does do something to how you portray your characters.

In their intertwined careers, Horwitz was the Civil War obsessive. His bestseller Confederates in the Attic was the first book that took him back to the South, and for some years the couple lived in rural Virginia, where a Union soldiers belt buckle found in their courtyard sparked her novel March. She wishes hed been able to analyse the Trump era after many conversations in bars with his supporters.

During research for Horse, Brooks had most fun on a road trip to Kentucky with Bizu and Horwitz, who was looking into Olmsteds work there and shared his knowledge of the archives. She also credits her funny, hard-working husband with spotting the link between Lexington and the Thomas Scott painting thrown on the street by a woman after her husbands death.

Brooks says its a privilege to live so close to nature.Credit:Randi Baird

We were so lucky until we werent, she says. My way of coping is to embrace the gratitude. The thing I miss most is the end of the day when he was walking across the lawn from the barn where he wrote with the laptop, and I would know the fun was about to start. We had the best time together. We would have loud raucous evenings arguing about the affairs of the day and laughing.

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Brooks remains enthusiastically Australian despite her dual citizenship and her American-born father (the intriguing subject of a memoir by her sister, Darleen Bungey). Clues to her attachment are scattered through Horse, with both Jess and Theo given Australian backgrounds, and a kelpie called Clancy modelled on her journalist friend Richard Glovers dog. She has an essay on author Tim Winton appearing soon. Once Bizu is at his US college, she wants to spend more time at her other hobbit house in inner-Sydney Balmain and beyond.

I just want to water my roots, she says.

And yet she loves the crooked wooden house she and Horwitz restored, on land bought by English settlers from the local Wampanoag people. She belongs deeply to her small, diverse, co- operative community, where people talk about catching the ferry to America. She has a garden to water there too.

As she prepares to leave on her publicity tour, to high praise from early American reviews of Horse, she says: Were just getting into the time of year when its fun to be outside as opposed to sheer agony. The flowers are busting out and everything is as green as Ireland suddenly. Weve got an old mill pond and a little stream through the property, so the frogs are coming out of hibernation and everything is coming back to life. Its a privilege to live so close to nature.

Horse is published by Hachette Australia on June 15.

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It breaks your heart: How Geraldine Brooks turned her grief into a book of love - Sydney Morning Herald

Luke Buckmaster feels the needthe need to reassess Hollywoods biggest action star. But what is the future of his stardom, and how does it intersect with ABBA, Mlis, and Grand Theft Auto? Read on.

In recent years an idea has been gaining traction that Tom Cruise could be the last movie star. The spectacular successand equally spectacular hyperboleaccompanying his new movie, Top Gun: Maverick, has emboldened some outlets to repeat that idea as if it were a fact, adding only slight qualifiers. A headline from the New York Times for instance reads: Hollywoods Last Real Movie Star. CBR chose another caveat: Hollywoods Last Great Star. A piece from Vulture settled on one of the last movie stars.

Part of the appeal of Cruises protagonist, Captain Pete Maverick Mitchell, aligns with the appeal of Cruise himself: that of a titan from another era, still standing in a rapidly evolving world that soon will have no place for him. In one scene from the new movie, a straight-talking buttoned-down admiral (played by Ed Harris, who has perfected the role) tells the hotshot pilot that one day planes will fly themselves and his profession will go the way of the dodo. The futures coming, says the admiral, and youre not in it. Maverick doesnt argue the point, nor ignore the opportunity for a rejoiner (maybe so sir, but not today).

Those proclaiming Cruise as an indomitable force of popular culture, commanding the zeitgeist like Zeus, tend to overlook his box office disappointments (such as Oblivion, American Made and 2017s The Mummy reboot) and understate the significance of his attachment to well-known brands (Mission: Impossible being the prominent example).

But bestowing upon him a last stature is more about a vibe, an aura, mixed with an acknowledgement that things in Hollywood arent what they used to be. Titanic franchises such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe have changed the game, accelerating a tendency for massive marketing campaigns based on characters being played (Spider-Man, Doctor Strange etcetera) rather than the actors playing them.

The conversation about Cruise potentially being the last star has never, as far as I know, acknowledged that its not just traditional notions of movie stardom that are currently in a state of flux but the very concept of human actors performing in front of a camera. Digital wizardry can now achieve the previously unthinkable, creating entirely fabricated lifelike videos of famous people or indeed anyone. The deepfake Tiktok channel @deeptomcruise features Cruise singing, speaking in an Australian accent, hanging out outside Harvard university, and playing rock paper scissors on Sunset Boulevardall entirely faked.

Its not perfect, but the technology is rapidly evolving and soon well no longer be able to distinguish the simulation from the genuine article. The dreaded uncanny valley will also be a thing of the past, as more and more human characters emerge that are entirely digitally created. These creations will not remain exclusively in the domain of shortform videos; they will become embedded in all kinds of content including longform productions, i.e. movies.

Hollywood has dabbled many times in the space of virtualized actorsresurrecting Carrie Fisher and Paul Walker, for instance, and de-ageing Will Smith and Robert DeNiroand will soon deliver us a new movie starring James Dean. But the partys just getting started, even if the writing has been on the wall for some time. In the 1990s, around the time he got 3D computer scans of his face, in the hope that it would be digitally brought back to life in the future, Marlon Brando said: Actors arent going to be real, theyre going to be inside a computer. You watch, its going to happen.

The idea of Tom Cruise being the last movie star is perfect not as a statement about current times but what is coming, the actor symbolizing the last generation of mega-famous flesh-and-blood actors before theyre finally and irrevocably fused with virtual agents.

Despite the inevitable outcry, and pleas to return to the good old days of real performers, this may actually be a good thing for moviesreinvigorating the art form and accelerating a trajectory observed by Lev Manovich in his influential book The Language of New Media. Manovich argued that digital artistry changed the essence of the movie medium, which can no longer be distinguished from animation and became, in effect, a sub-genre of painting.

Want to see a new Top Gun adventure, starring Tom Cruise in his heyday, with Bette Davis playing his love interest and Humphrey Bogart his mentor? The possibilities are endless. Those who balk at the idea of virtual performers ignore that the very essence of motion pictures is illusionary.

Ever since Louis Lumire premiered his film of a train arriving at a station, cinema has been entirely about fooling the senses, from the process of projecting still images in rapid succession (providing the impression of movement) to countless codes and conventions developed to maintain the ruse. The question of emotional truth is always more important than trivial matters about whether what we see in an artistic work was ever actually, physically there.

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Its easier for video game (rather than film) enthusiasts to get their minds around the expressive potential of virtualized performance. During a cutscene in a great game, the player doesnt think this is so fake, where are the humans? They are engrossed by the characters, emotions, story, atmosphere. I recently returned to Grand Theft Auto V (one of my favourite video games) and the virtual performances struck me as a hundred times more resonant, more human, than any performance from an MCU movie.

Marvels conga line of flat, uniform characters reduces actual people to algorithmic functions: a reminder that impersonal and even inhumane art is not a matter of form or presentation but the motives of the content creators. The danger of an entertainment industry populated by virtual actors is a pivot away from the idiosyncrasies of human expression towards machine-tooled programming designed to appease and second-guess audiences (though that is much like how Hollywood today works). But it doesnt have to be like that. Evoking the metaphor of digital wizardry as a form of painting encourages a return to the imaginative potential espoused by early fantasists such as Georges Mlis.

On the subject of metaphors, show business has extracted much mileage over the years from the idea of famous people being starsaspirational beacons of light beaming down on us from above. The act of observing a real star in the sky creates a paradox, ushering the past into the present. Due to the speed of light, and the distance between the viewer and the star, it is seen not as it is but as it once was.

The star is also new to the moment, resplendent and surreal, a beautiful splotch of painting on the canvas of the cosmos. Observing Hollywoods stars of the future will be a comparable phenomenon: life ushered back into existence, in shimmering vitality, the ghosts of the movies freed from their celluloid coffins to roam again and inspire anew.

The transformation of actors into dazzling virtual beings will occur gradually, though some productions will be determined circuit breakers in hindsight. In the world of music virtualisation, one may be unfolding right now.

You might not have heard that last month ABBA returned to the stage for the first time in decades, kicking off a season of virtual concerts using lifelike digital avatars (or Abbatars). Its a wonder that reviewers managed to operate their keyboards, their jaws so clearly on the floor. Reports that the real ABBA attended the premiere got it around the wrong way. The real ABBA werent the old-timers hobbling to the stage after the performance, but the phantasmagoria that came before: the lights, sounds, spectacle, sheer experience that transported the audience into a magical alternate reality.

Likewise, the real Tom Cruise isnt the man on the red carpet, working the crowd, or the savvy operator meeting with studio executives in Tinsel Town. The real Cruise is the god-like entity on screen, with his otherworldly looks and million-watt smile; with his eternal vibe and aura.

If the stars in the sky are visions of the past rendered into the present with stunning freshness and vivacity, changing the contemporary outlook, perhaps we are yet to see a true movie star, given every famous actor, preserved in light and shadow, has never transcended the decisions they made as a flesh and blood mortal. There have been digital resurrections here and there, but nobody has truly achieved the paradox of being simultaneously old and new.

Perhaps Tom Cruise could get on the frontfoot and sign a five or 10 picture deal for his celluloid afterlife, helping to inform the narratives that will shape it before time and mortality takes that ability away from him. Production could commence on Top Gun 3 and Mission: Impossible 27 shortly after his death. Then we could call him the lastand the firstmovie star.

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Does Tom Cruise represent the last generation of flesh and blood movie stars? - Flicks

As the queer community continues to evolve, so does the language used to describe it. (Credit: Getty images)

Once upon a time, four letters were commonly used to describe the queer community as a whole: "L" for lesbian, "G" for gay, "B" for bisexual and "T" for trans, creating an acronym: LGBT.

But that was then, and this is now. As new terminologies, identities and experiences appear in the zeitgeist, the acronym has since picked up a few more letters: "Q" for queer and/or questioning, "I" for intersex and "A" for asexual, creating the widely used acronym: "LGBTQIA+" with that "+" on the end meant to cover anyone who feels their queer identity was not otherwise represented.

The alphabet soup can be a lot to swallow for some (including Lea DeLaria, who's poked fun in the past about the ever-growing acronym), and some prefer to stick to "LGBTQ" or "LGBTQ+" or even, simply, "queer" (DeLaria's choice). But there is a reason and history behind its existence.

Before the rise of the acronym, people often simply said, "the gay community" or "the gay and lesbian community" which left out bisexual people, who make up the majority of the LGBTQIA+ population as a whole, and transgender people, a group that is largely credited for spearheading the queer-rights movement to begin with. Sometime in the the 1970s, queer activists popularized usage of the "LGB" acronym as a way to display unity. The "T" was later added, in the 1990s, meant to be a further step toward inclusion.

More recently, the letter "Q" was added as a way to acknowledge those exploring their gender or sexual identity, or those who don't identify with any of the first four letters, preferring "queer."

Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO of GLAAD, the worlds largest media advocacy organization for LGBTQ (the acronym used by GLAAD) rights, tells Yahoo Life the evolution of the acronym represents the community's "growth, strength and vitality, and our future," adding that as more people of different experiences and backgrounds come out now including those who identify with a range of terms, including nonbinary and xenogender in record numbers, its important to see that reflected in changing terms and acronyms.

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The LGBTQIA+ acronym, seen on a sign here in Paris earlier this month, has become a global go-to. (Photo: Adrien Fillon/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Whichever acronym is used, knowing the basics of these terms is important to understand the complexities of the queer experience. Heres a quick overview:

Lesbian: A woman who is physically, romantically and/or emotionally attracted to other women.

Gay: A word that describes a person who is physically, romantically and/or emotionally attracted to people of the same sex or gender.

Bisexual (also Bi or Bi+): A person with the capacity to be physically, romantically and/or emotionally attracted to more than one gender, though not necessarily at the the same time or to the same degree.

Transgender: A people whose gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. They may also use other terms, in addition to transgender, to describe their gender more specifically such as nonbinary or gender nonconforming. (Others can be found in GLAADs Transgender Glossary.)

Queer: Often embraced by younger generations, "queer" is used to describe an identity that is not heterosexuality, or exclusive to one particular thing. People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or anything else, may also embrace the "queer" label, as more singular labels may be perceived as too limiting.

Questioning: A word used to describe people who are in the process of exploring their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Intersex: A person with one or more innate sex characteristics like genitals, internal reproductive organs and chromosomes that fall outside of traditional conceptions of male or female bodies. Their male or female gender identity is typically assigned at birth by medical providers and/or parents. Sometimes, controversially, that decision involves surgically altering genitalia to match this decision.

Asexual: A person who does not experience sexual attraction. Sometimes shortened to "ace," it's also an umbrella term that can include other identities such as demisexual, which refers to those who do not experience sexual attraction to others unless they form a strong emotional bond with them first.

Definitions aside, its important to understand that each term may mean something different to different people, based on their own lived experiences.

Bottom line? There's no one way to be L, G, B, T, Q, I or A. What is important, however, Ellis explains, is to know the language first, in order to acknowledge and celebrate differences. Asking people how they describe themselves (including what their pronouns are) is equally as important.

During a time when the queer community is under constant attack by state lawmakers across the country, Ellis says it has never been more vital for the country to learn about the importance of language and unity.

LGBTQ[IA+] people are part of the most diverse community in the world, representing different sexual orientations and genders, as well as all races, religions and from all regions, she says. Language signals solidarity within the community and to everyone outside of it that we are different and still united in our fight for freedom and equality for all.

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What is LGBTQIA+? The acronym for the queer community keeps evolving. - Yahoo Life

When My Chemical Romance broke out with 2004sThree Cheers for Sweet Revenge, I didnt notice. A junior in high school, I was too busy listening to Radiohead, Dr. Dre, or the Broadway musicalRent, depending on what group of friends I was trying to fit in with at the time. And by the release of the the zeitgeist shattering followup, 2006sThe Black Parade,I was somewhere off at college, mismanaging my study time whilelost in a cloud of bong smoke.

Every music lover has blind spots, and every budding critic tries to fill in the gaps as they go. However, by the time I earned my first bylines, My Chemical Romance had already gone on hiatus. There were more pressing gaps to fill, even as I tried to keep up with the dozens of new albums released every month.

But as the now-legacy rockers began to assemble for a much-delayed reunion tour earlier this spring, I decided the time had come. I waited until my one-year-old was napping, popped on my best headphones, and listened to The Black Paradefor the first time.

Uh, holy shit. This album rules.

The Black Paradeopens with The End. and the sound of a hospital heart rate monitor as The Patient slides inexorably towards death. Now, come one, come all to this tragic affair, Gerard Way begins by way of invitation. Wipe off that makeup, whats in is despair.

The words brought back a high school memory: one of my goth buddies mocking the emo kids for their theatrical anguish, as if the only way you should be allowed to wear black eyeliner is if your music had growls instead of singing.

That same friend spent most of his free time rapping every word to Limp Bizkits Nookie, in case you had any illusions about his taste. Now, almost 20 years later, I could appreciate the sly humor of, Wipe off that makeup, whats in is despair, and the playfulness of opening an album with The End.

My Chemical Romances rock opera ambitions are on full display with the album anchor, Welcome to the Black Parade. A multi-movement musical suite, it kicks off with tender piano as The Patient recalls their fathers words about death or as the album would have it, joining the Black Parade. Marching drums transform into pummeling percussion as the first movement builds to a cacophonous climax, before the song enters its second, irresistibly catchy act. Well carry on, is a rousing anthem, even followed with, And though youre dead and gone, believe me/ Your memory will carry on.

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A 35-Year-Old Man Listens to My Chemical Romances The Black Parade for the First Time - Consequence

The hectic rhythms of this age are not those of an Anton Chekhov play. Yet the Russian writer is very much in evidence right now.

More consumed with questions than with answers, Chekhovs plays depict human beings rather than heroes or villains. Life is captured in plots in which not much seems to happen yet by the end everything is changed.

All of this runs counter to our sensation-seeking, moralizing, politically divisive zeitgeist. But theater artists, filmmakers and novelists, drawn to the interior richness of Chekhovs dramas, have discovered not only the timeliness of his untimely work but also its aesthetic pliancy and openness.

Suddenly, Chekhov seems to be everyones favorite collaborator. And many of us are beginning to remember that, despite our differences, were still at heart introspective Chekhovian characters.

Chelsea Kurtz and Hugo Armstrong in Uncle Vanya at Pasadena Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

A new production of Uncle Vanya is underway at Pasadena Playhouse under the direction of Michael Michetti. The translation, a partnership between playwright and director Richard Nelson and the veteran team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, had its 2018 premiere at San Diegos Old Globe in a supple, compact and exquisitely intimate production that made it seem as if we were eavesdropping on the characters.

I doubted after that revival that I would ever again have such an emotionally intense experience of Uncle Vanya, but then I saw Drive My Car, this years Oscar winner for international feature film. Co-written and directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, the movie (streaming on HBO Max) is adapted from Haruki Murakamis story of the same title from his collection Men Without Women. Chekhovs play figures prominently and gives the film its soul.

The protagonist, Kafuku, is a middle-aged actor mourning the death of his unfaithful wife. Hes been invited to direct Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima, a city resurrected from ashes. Kafuku, a shell of his former self, has performed the role of Vanya before and learned his lines through a tape his wife prepared of the script. Revisiting Chekhov in Hiroshima slowly brings him back to life.

Hamaguchi directs with exemplary restraint. The storys movement is subterranean. We observe a haunted Kafuku conducing rehearsals; we listen along as he replays his ghostly Vanya tape in the car to and from the theater; and we watch him reluctantly open up to his young female driver, who also happens to be drowning in complicated grief. Together they enact offstage the meaning of Chekhovs play.

Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tko Miura in the movie Drive My Car.

(The Match Factory)

Uncle Vanya has been described as Chekhovs most spiritual work. Vanya, a middle-aged manager of his familys country estate, and Sonya, his unmarried niece, have sacrificed themselves for the sake of Serebryakov, Sonyas father, who was married to Vanyas beloved dead sister. A crotchety retired professor, Serebryakov has returned with Elena, his stunningly beautiful and much younger second wife, throwing the households dull routine into chaos.

Vanya falls under Elenas spell, as does Astrov, the doctor with a passion for both environmentalism and vodka whom Sonya unrequitedly loves. Rejected as a lover by Elena and enraged when Serebryakov announces that he wants to put the estate up for sale, Vanya feels that he has wasted his life. His anger, once farcically discharged, turns inward and his thoughts are set on death. The play is a study in learning to bear failure and futility, if not for oneself then for those loved ones, like lonely Sonya, who has enough sorrow without the addition of her uncles suicide.

Surviving disillusionment without succumbing to despair, persevering after dreams have been shattered, finding the will to keep going when all that appears ahead is a succession of monotonous days Uncle Vanya, now that I think of it, may be the perfect play for our pandemic-scarred moment.

Gary Shteyngart recognizes this connection in his recent novel Our Country Friends, which takes place just as COVID-19 is sweeping the world. Set in a private bungalow-colony in New Yorks Hudson Valley where a group of friends has holed up during the pandemic, the book, which includes a backyard performance of Uncle Vanya, is Chekhovian in its essential framework.

The dramatis personae of the novel are listed at the start, with shorthand descriptions normally reserved for plays. Sasha, a novelist worried about the fate of a television deal that would allow him to hold on to his bohemian country property, and his psychiatrist wife, Masha, are the Russian-born hosts of an extended reunion that brings to the fore questions of endurance. How, the novel asks, can the characters move forward with a modicum of grace in the wake of betrayal, defeat and the suffering that is inherent in the human condition?

The tragic poet writes from a sense of crisis, the distinguished drama critic Eric Bentley contended. The comic poet is less apt to write out of a particular crisis than from that steady ache of misery which in human life is even more common than crisis and so a more insistent problem.

In a magnificently Chekhovian aside, Bentley adds, When we get up tomorrow morning, we may well be able to do without our tragic awareness for an hour or two but we shall desperately need our sense of the comic.

Catastrophe, as many of us have come to realize during these difficult last years, offers no protection from the assaults of daily living. Even in a deadly pandemic, pets get sick, couples break up, heart attacks occur and fender-benders ruin an afternoon.

With his compassionate humor, Chekhov neither indicts his characters nor lets them off the hook for their myopic concerns. His plays are a tonic reminder to artists across disciplines that lives are lived not in headlines but in passing moments. Big things occur in Chekhov. Houses are lost, guns occasionally go off and people die. But the focus is on muddling through.

Chekhovs artistic vision offers a corrective to the Twitter metabolism of our increasingly virtual culture. Nothing, it turns out, is more powerful than our effect on one another. Other people may drive us crazy, but it is for their sake that we find the stamina to go on living. Uncle Vanya is a bleak play, but its also a genuinely consoling one.

Rachel Cusks recent novel Second Place, another pandemic-era tale set in a bucolic backwater, acknowledges a debt to Lorenzo in Taos, Mable Dodge Luhans 1932 memoir of the time D.H. Lawrence came to stay with her in New Mexico. But the story of a narcissistic artist in this case a painter who arrives as a guest of honor and dishonorably wrecks the precarious equilibrium established by a writer mother, her daughter, their significant others and a wildcard guest evokes The Seagull, Chekhovs masterly comedy about artists in love.

Cusks refusal to let her storys brewing clashes reach any melodramatic conclusions also suggests the influence of Uncle Vanya. Perhaps Im reading Chekhov into the novel, but the ironic interplay of creative personalities and egos makes it impossible not to think of The Seagull, which is enjoying its own turn in the spotlight.

A new adaption by director Yasen Peyankov simply called Seagull is nearing the end of its run at Chicagos Steppenwolf Theatre. And New Yorks inventive downtown troupe Elevator Repair Service will be doing its own Seagull this summer in a version that, according to the companys website, reimagines Chekhovs classic drama by blurring the line between a play and a frank chat with the audience.

This is a strategy that was recently deployed in the Wilma Theaters flamboyant deconstruction of The Cherry Orchard adapted by Russian director Dmitry Krymov in conjunction with the Hothouse Company. Characters tromped through the audience with their luggage and a few spectators were called to the stage to help with a necktie and participate in a volleyball match. Yes, volleyball was played in a production that was unapologetically, though not gratuitously, anachronistic.

A scene from the Wilma Theaters adaptation of The Cherry Orchard, directed by Dmitry Krymov.

(Johanna Austin)

The Cherry Orchard dramatizes a societal shift between the land-owning gentry and the descendants of serfs, who are ready to capitalize on their initiative and seize what was hitherto withheld from them. Its no surprise then that in a period of momentous historical transition artists would be drawn to experiment with this seismic play.

In The Orchard, opening later this month in New York, Ukrainian director Igor Golyak presents a hybrid production that includes an immersive performance at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and a separate interactive experience online. The cast, which includes such stage luminaries as Jessica Hecht and Mark Nelson, features Mikhail Baryshnikov as both Anton Chekhov and Firs, the elderly servant whos left behind when the estate is ultimately auctioned off.

Chekhov, of course, is rarely absent from the repertoire, but I cant remember when hes been so adventurously present. Many of these offerings have been long in the works, but something is palpably in the air.

Michetti said that he has long wanted to do Uncle Vanya and jumped at the chance when Pasadena Playhouse presented him with the opportunity. Extrapolating from his own interest, he offered a compelling explanation for this sudden proliferation of Chekhov.

The pandemic has led many people to reassess their lives, to decide whether theyve made the right choices and to see if there might be another chapter for them, he says. So many things have shaken us up. The world as we knew it changed. For those in the theater, the entire industry was taken away. This really felt like an opportunity to answer the call to look at our lives, a very Chekhovian thing to do.

Michetti calls the Great Resignation the very stuff of Chekhov. Certainly, his characters are forever contemplating roads not taken or abandoned. What the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips calls the unlived life is the one that invariably seems to preoccupy them most.

But the plays dont hector or propound moral lessons. Instead, they depict how we exist in time, as critic Richard Gilman astutely observed. They show us the way we try to escape an unsatisfying present through speculative fictions about how our suffering will eventually be redeemed through requited love or satisfying work or, failing those, Gods mercy.

Chekhov saw this tendency as human, all-too-poignantly human. His art doesnt seek to correct but merely to point out that as were dreaming of better days our real lives are quietly unfolding.

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Commentary: How Anton Chekhov became the playwright of the moment - Los Angeles Times

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County has announced its lineup for the 11th season of THEATER UP CLOSE, created in collaboration with Zoetic Stage and City Theatre. This season's Theater Up Close series returns with five extraordinary productions, including two world premieres by Miami playwrights Michael McKeever and Vanessa Garcia, one Florida premiere and the regional premiere of Heidi Schreck's Pulitzer and Tony Award nominated hit Broadway play What the Constitution Means to Me.

"The Arsht Center was very proud to present the 10th Anniversary Theater Up Close series to supportive South Florida theater enthusiasts," said Liz Wallace, vice president of programming for the Arsht Center. "We welcome the community back for a strong, wide ranging, engaging and thought provoking 2022-2023 season."

"We at Zoetic Stage are enormously excited to be partnering with the Arsht Center for our 11th season! Our programming for the 2022-2023 season has been carefully curated, crafted with stories about personalized American experiences igniting a wanderlust filled with moments surrounding human connectivity and moving forward," said Zoetic Stage Artistic Director Stuart Meltzer.

"City Theatre is very glad to be included in the Arsht Center's Theatre Up Close Series for the opportunity it offers our company to bring audiences interesting full-length plays that we are excited to produce, such as the regional premiere of Heidi Schreck's What the Constitution Means to Me. We expect it will resonate with South Florida audiences as powerfully as it did during its multi-award winning, sold-out run on Broadway," said City Theatre's Artistic Director Margaret M. Ledford

The lineup for the 2022-2023 THEATER UP CLOSE series includes the following:

Zoetic Stage and Adrienne Arsht Center present

By Lynn Nottage

Directed by Stuart Meltzer

October 13 - 30, 2022

Mlima is a magnificent African elephant trapped by the underground international ivory market. As he follows a trail littered by a history of greed, Mlima takes us on a journey through memory, fear, tradition and the penumbra between want and need. From Lynn Nottage, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright of Sweat and Ruined, Mlima's Tale is a captivating and haunting fable come to life.

City Theatre and Adrienne Arsht Center present

By Heidi Schreck

Directed by Margaret M. Ledford

December 1-18, 2022

Playwright Heidi Schreck's timely and galvanizing play became a sensation off-Broadway and then Broadway where it received two Tony Award nominations, the Pulitzer Prize nomination, and countless other accolades. Hilariously hopeful, and achingly human, Heidi becomes her teenage self, earning college tuition by winning constitutional debate competitions across the United States. Every amendment leads to surprising storytelling as adult Heidi traces the profound relationship between four generations of women and the founding document that shaped their lives. Theatrical, personal, and boundary-breaking, Schreck's play breathes new life and understanding of the Constitution and imagines the impact of its evolution on the next generation of Americans.

Zoetic Stage and Adrienne Arsht Center present

By Michael McKeever

Directed by Stuart Meltzer

January 12 - 29, 2023

Over the course of some 60 years - starting in 1969 and ending in 2032 - the Cabot family tries to keep up with the world as it evolves around them. Epic in scope yet intimate by nature, American Rhapsody weaves the lives of its main characters through the ever-changing landscape of the American zeitgeist as it speeds through the last half of the 20th century into the turbulence of today and well beyond: civil unrest, the feminist movement, the greed of the '80s, the horrors of 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, same-sex marriage, the COVID-19 pandemic. As the family evolves into a new America, so does its cultural identity as members of other races and sexual orientations marry into and redefine what the family thought it was.

Zoetic Stage and Adrienne Arsht Center present

Music by Tom Kitt

Book & Lyrics by Brian Yorkey

Directed by Stuart Meltzer

March 16 - April 9, 2023

Next to Normal is a deeply moving rock musical that explores how one household copes with crisis and mental illness. Winner of three 2009 Tony Awards, including Best Musical Score, and the 2010 Pulitzer Prize, Next to Normal was also chosen as one of the year's 10 best shows by critics at publications across the country, including The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone and The New York Times.

Dad's an architect. Mom rushes to pack lunches and pour cereal. Their daughter and son are bright, wisecracking teens. They appear to be a typical American family. And yet their lives are anything but normal, because the mother has been battling manic depression for 16 years. Next to Normal takes audiences into the minds and hearts of each character, presenting their family's story with love, sympathy and heart.

Zoetic Stage and Adrienne Arsht Center present

By Vanessa Garcia

Directed by Sarah Hughes

May 4 - 21, 2023

Catherine is searching for something authentic as she embarks on a "Lewis-and-Clark-esque" trip across America sponsored by Monteverde Moonshine with her new lover and colleague, Lewis. Along the way, they pick up a wayward nun named Rosalie who has just gone through deep loss, meet a queer homeschooled teenager named Blake and rummage through the layers of migration and gender inequity that make up America. As Catherine travels, she comes to more questions than answers about "the real America," her own identity and what authenticity even means anymore.

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The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Announces 2022-2023 Season Featuring Two World Premieres & More - Broadway World

Correct me if I am wrong but there is a collective sense of apathy across social sections to protect, cherish and preserve the past. As Bangladesh stands at fifty, brushing aside detractors, looking into the future does not conjure up the image of a long dark tunnel anymore. Well, for someone who is just as old the country, there was a time when society lived with the mantra of addressing the challenges at hand, keeping future thoughts out of mind. Actually, with high unemployment among the educated, food shortages, recurring natural disasters, political conflagrations plus a pervasive feeling of malaise, looking ahead was too much of a luxury.

Live now, tackle the immediate problems and think about the future later, was the rule of the day. That rather dismal picture of Bangladesh, wracked by problems, is more like a faded chapter, although standing at fifty, its often the past that comes back in moments of nostalgia. Or, shall we say, delectable dive into the days gone by?

While trying to live for the moment, a mistake was made: We wiped away the past.

Dhaka, once a sleepy city, now operates as a bustling capital offering the best and certainly the worst of other capitals.

We all know the problems but apart from the glaring ones like traffic jams and congestion, the other, often neglected issue is the way Dhakas heritage is being systematically expunged.

From buildings to customs to music to food to architecture, the past is being obliterated in the face of a leviathan called predatory urban ideals. I know, modernity has its kick although its allure is ephemeral. Deny that and you will be perpetuating a delusion!

Dhakas ponds and old architecture:

Its hard to believe that once this city was interspersed with small water bodies or ponds. Almost every area had several houses with ponds at the back. To talk about Elephant Road, where I spent my teenage days in the early 80s, several homes had ponds. There isnt a single one now! The same applies for old buildings. Caught in the apartment culture, all individual buildings were demolished. Of course, the apartment was inevitable since land was limited and the number of people living in the city rose phenomenally. However, the city does not have a photo archive of buildings that were torn down. Hence, its almost impossible to reconstruct an image of Dhaka in the first decades after independence. In the Old part of the city, structures dating back to the 19th century are either left in a dilapidated condition or demolished to make space for new ones.

Old Dhaka is replete with history although a coordinated approach to safeguard the past is absent. Accepted, some of the privately owned buildings will be knocked down at the decision of the owners but a government run initiative can preserve images plus a wide variety of historical objects from furniture to utensils as objects of historical and cultural significance.

Recent urban history is scant:

Dhaka has experienced radical change since 1990. In the last thirty-two years, the cultural and social creed of Dhaka of the periods just after liberation was obliterated in a mad rush to accommodate new outlooks.

Just to give an example, portraying the city of the 70s and 80s in celluloid will be an uphill task because the social zeitgeist of the period, exhibited through a variety of items including, cars, clothes, books, posters has not be preserved.

In the 70s and 80s, the main past time for teenagers and the elderly alike was reading popular fiction like Masud Rana, Kuasha, Dasyu Bonhur, Dasyu Panja, Bionic Mehedi. In the afternoons, people listened to film trailers on radio followed by world music. Today, copies of these books are extremely rare. Once in a blue moon, some old Masud Rana copies emerge at the Nilkhet second hand market to be quickly taken by someone in what can be called a serendipitous find.

Copies of these books were not preserved. During last Eid, a collector of old Bichitra magazines sold his copies dating from the early 80s and late 70s for Tk500 a piece. The magazines, covering the heyday of footballing glory, the rise of the British Bangladeshi diaspora in the wake of the race related protests in 1978, floods in 1980, the obsession to head for the Middle East for highly paid employment to Bangladeshs first ever football world cup qualification adventure in 1985, opened the door to a forgotten era.

Unfortunately, no library in Dhaka can offer an archive of newspapers from the 80s, the turbulent years marked by the anti autocratic movement, leaving the young of today to be left at the hands of partisan narrators to form an idea about Bangladeshs political past.

For music lovers, a regular haunt was the Elephant Road Rainbowr Gali which housed recording centres, Soor Bichitra, Rhythm and Rainbow. Hardly any image or video recorded clips of these placed can be found.

Dhakas first air-conditioned fast food restaurant was Coffee House in Elephant Road, which is also lost in the abyss of time since images, video recordings of the place do not exist.

Recently, the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) through Alliance Francaise, British Council and Goethe Institute and BUET, launched a project Learning from Puran Dhaka aimed at protecting, preserving and cherishing the cultural heritage, architecture, river and creed of Old Dhaka.

Focusing on how the River Buriganga shaped livelihood and zeitgeist of Old Dhaka, this project will involve teachers, architects, researchers from Bangladesh, France and India.

To encourage the residents of Old Dhaka about the significance of the project, a series of visually stimulating cultural events will be organised in the future from colourful rallies to processions by French street performers using stilts known commonly as Les Grande Personnes.

At the launching event of the project, the EU Ambassador to Bangladesh, Charles Whiteley, acknowledged the historical, cultural and gastronomic heritage of Old Dhaka, saying: the vibrant and indomitable spirit of Old Dhaka is represented through its crafts, mouth-watering dishes and architecture dating back to the Mughal period. Cultural heritage is also a driver of sustainability in an economic, social and environmental perspective. On the socio-economic side, it is an important asset to enhance sustainable development by providing employment opportunities and supporting economic livelihoods.

A museum on Dhaka:

Since independence, this city, often termed the microcosm of towns and districts across the country, has undergone astonishing transformations. As the capital of the war ravaged country, Dhaka endured post liberation socio-economic malaise, political maelstrom, austerity and hardship moving slowly but inexorably towards prosperity and modernism. This journey and everything that symbolise the undaunted spirit, encapsulates the perseverance of this nation. On the 50th year, standing as old as the country and having experienced all of her highs and lows, I earnestly feel that there should be a concerted effort to safeguard historic buildings plus the recent urban history, covering the social metamorphosis since 1972.

To end with a quote from Richard Moe, the historic preservation advocate: there may have been a time when preservation was about saving an old building here and there, but those days are gone. Preservation is the business of saving communities and the values they embody.

Towheed Feroze is an avid admirer of the kaleidoscopic charm of Old Dhaka.

Read this article:

Preserve the past, please! - Dhaka Tribune

As tempting as it might be for Depp to embrace his status as a leader of the anti-MeToo movement, the veteran movie producer says he should resist. He needs to represent Johnny Depp as an actor trying to come back from years of lack of sobriety. The narrative that he beat #MeToo would be very bad for him.

Once one of Americas biggest and most magnetic movie stars, Depp was the kind of actor who could make any movieeven one based on a theme park rideworth seeing. His career has encompassed serious indie films and blockbusters. As he grew older, he transformed into a bit of a cartoon-character version of a rebel, in the mold of his gonzo hero, Hunter S. Thompson. During the trial, there was discussion of whether Depp had gained a problematic reputation in the industry that dimmed his work prospects even before Heards op-ed. In a video deposition, UTAs Tracey Jacobs, a top talent agent who represented Depp for 30 years until he fired her in 2016, testified about his increased substance abuse and suggested that, in her final decade working with him, Depp tarnished his reputation by consistently showing up late to set. People were talking, she said. The question was out there about his behavior.

A prominent Hollywood publicist and awards strategist sees a bumpy road ahead for Depp. Once you go too far down this path, the legitimate studios are not going to hire him. Hes still slightly kryptonite. But what does he care? He will continue to make money off marginal video-on-demand things and be fine with that.

Hes still slightly kryptonite. But what does he care? He will continue to make money off marginal video-on-demand things and be fine with that.

A talent agent at one of the major agencies believes that since Depps dangerous artistic image was already a given, audiences may be forgiving. I think its just going to take one studio hiring him. Maybe he has to make an independent film or make something thats outside the studio system for it to be acceptable to hire him again."

A development executive who has worked on several Depp projects agrees that the actors reintegration into Hollywood will be a gradual process: I dont think he immediately goes back on the Harry Potter franchise or goes immediately back onto Pirates of the Caribbean. The jury and the public seem to be on his side, so its less controversial than many of these other celebrities whove been guilty of #MeToo accusations, because he did win the case largely.

The executive disagrees with Depps former agents assessment that issues like substance abuse and emotional volatility had already hampered Depps projects. That kind of stuff never really affected his ability to show up on set and give a performance. It wasnt an industry problem like, we cant get him bonded because he wont show up on set for big chunks of time. Whatever those problems were, its not like they had a massive impact on his ability to actually perform in big films.

Still, the abuse accusations will remain a factor in whether he gets hired, the development exec admits. Its a question of executives within the business determining: Do they want that headache? My guess is more likely hes going to be doing sort of smaller, Rum Diary kinds of movies that might kind of get him back on the map. Depp may also find himself being offered less compensation because of his reputational damage. Johnny is part of a group of superstars that used to command these gigantic salaries, the development exec continues. Thats a shrinking demographic. So any excuse Hollywood could use to not pay those figures, theyre gonna take it.

Depp does have other financial footholds, like his role as the face of Diors Sauvage cologne. The company chose to stand by him through the trial, a decision that seemed to be rewarded by fans, some of whom went out of their way to buy the product as a sign of support for Depp. Its a win for Dior, says a luxury fashion brand executive and consultant. Theres obviously a lot of articles out there [saying] that nobody has won, but clearly Johnny is the winner in our public opinion.

As for Heard, most sources V.F. spoke to agree that her reputation has been badly damaged by the grueling trial. Although never as massive a star as Depp, Heard is set to appear in blockbuster sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom alongside Jason Momoa next year. But Depp fans, who have showered Heard with disgust and fury, mounted a campaign to remove the actor from the movie; as of this writing, their change.org petition has more than 4.5 million signatures.

She walked away being less trusted and less liked than she was before.

Insiders are divided about Heards prospects going forward. I think, for Amber, her career is over, says the talent agent. She didnt really have a viable career in the last year or two or so before this, so I dont know how she comes out of that. The development exec concurs: She had her day in court, quite literally, to prove the case that she was trying to make, and the jurors didnt find it as compelling and the public didnt find it as compelling. At the end of the day, I think she walked away being less trusted and less liked than she was before.

The publicist is more sanguine about Heards future: Her career as a big studio star is done, but I do think shell find appropriate producers who are going to be all about working with herwomen who actually want to send the elevator back down for people. The veteran movie producer isnt quite ready to make a bet. It really depends on the kinds of choices that she makes. I think there will be people that are willing to work with her. And if she did a terrific indie with a terrific part and showed her chops, I think she could come back from this.

Hollywood has recently forged a mini trend out of reckoning with the tabloid demonization of women like Monica Lewinsky, Pamela Anderson, and Britney Spears; yet Heards treatment on social media grimly echoes the way these women were publicly mocked and undermined. The harassment and the humiliation, the campaign against me thats echoed every single day on social media, and now in front of cameras in the showroomevery single day I have to relive the trauma, Heard said in her testimony. Current hashtags include #amberheardisapsychopath, #WeJustDontLikeYouAmber, and #DontBelieveAllWomen.

I think this trial fell into a zeitgeist crisis, says the movie producer. Theres an appetite for allowing complications to enter the picture, where its not all victim and victimizer. The craziness [aimed at Heard] was a kind of pent-up anger at women. I think it really stirred up a lot of deep-seated resentment that hasnt been allowed expression since #MeToo.

The verdict may test one of Hollywoods ongoing quandaries, the producer says: How canceled is canceled? Other than Harvey Weinstein, it seems that all bets are off. I think it will be determined by the market, not the executives. If the market really wants an actor, theyll get it. I dont think the market is begging for Kevin Spacey. They certainly are begging for Dave Chappelle. And judging by Depps army of followers, he retains a boisterous fandom. His post-verdict Instagram statement currently has more than 18 million likes, some from celebrities, including filmmaker Taika Waititi.

So would you cast either Depp or Heard right now, if you had the right part? I would probably wait six months to figure that out, the producer says. Right now the studios and the buyers dont know whats going to happen. You have to wait for this to sort of settle in the culture. But I would certainly put them on the list.

Meanwhile, Hollywood will have to let the grimness of the trial dissipate. I think they abused each other, says an industry veteran who watched the trial compulsively. I think they were toxic. I dont think hes a serial abuser. He didnt abuse Kate Moss. He didnt abuse Vanessa Paradis. But there are some combinations of people that are like chemicals that are completely benign when theyre on their own, but you put them together, and they blow up your kitchen.

Additional interviews by Anthony Breznican, Rebecca Ford, and Britt Hennemuth.

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What Happens to Johnny Depps and Amber Heards Careers? Insiders Weigh In - Vanity Fair

A sense of nostalgia with a hint of mystery hung over the Concert Hall on Friday for WA Symphony Orchestras featured work, Haydns Sinfonia concertante.

Four of WASOs leading musicians Liz Chee (oboe), Jane Kircher-Lindner (bassoon), Semra Lee-Smith (violin) and Eve Silver (cello) were billed as soloists, yet a harpsichord held centre stage.

Haydns Classical strains took on a wistful, nostalgic quality, perhaps because this would be the last of an heroic run of concertos and ensembles played by the orchestras own artists during COVID curbs, with the return of international talent next week.

The four voices and their complementary colours faithfully captured the elegant simplicity of the melody, a whiff of a sigh in the composition and languor in delivery as if spinning out this special moment.

Lee-Smith brought yearning to the Allegro first movement solos and cadenzas, echoed by duets in the double reeds, with Silvers assured support and virtuoso flourishes.

The Andante second movement opened in violin and bassoon, then oboe and cello, playing across the quartet with an empathy and lightness of touch that spoke of easy familiarity; landing gently on the cadence over mellow horns.

Sudden attack into the Allegro con spirito finale gave way to violin cadenzas alternating with the orchestra, Lee-Smiths confident lead taken up by Silver in matching quality of tone, sustained by oboe and bassoon; the quartet in dialogue with the orchestra punctuated by exquisitely exposed violin.

A heartfelt hometown cheer at the conclusion said it all.

And the harpsichord? A late addition to the scripted program with Fisch playing and directing from the keyboard.

The instrument is a staple of the Baroque era that Fisch at a Discovery concert in 2019 ironically compared to someone walking on broken glass while were trying to play a symphony.

The evening opened with Brahms Variation on a Theme by Haydn, another whiff of nostalgia harking back from the Romantic to the Classical era, the familiar theme led out by young guest oboist Kyeong Ham, stepping up to great effect with Chee absent on solo duty.

Woodwind was reinforced by German trumpets then transplanted by strings as woodwind and brass tolled out a rhythmic accompaniment.

Fisch was relaxed and expressive on the podium, summoning disparate elements in turn, delicately balancing the dynamics as the theme passed through variations and sections; sometimes more classically Haydn, at others full-on Romantic Brahms especially in the grandiose finale, which earned a warm ovation for Ham.

After the break, Beethovens Leonore Overture No.3 channelled the drama of the French revolutionary era, an opening blast and sustained chordal sequence building gradually to a brusque explosion with full effects in woodwind, brass and strings.

Fisch was in full flight with vigorous gestures painting sound on a canvas of air; leaving nothing on the field in summoning the zeitgeist of Beethovens breakthrough decade.

Ovations followed for off-stage trumpeter Brent Grapes, flautist Andrew Nicholson and bassoonist Adam Mikulicz again, a stand-in for a principal on solo duty.

Beethovens much-neglected Symphony No.8 rounded out the program, another sudden attack echoing the surging, swirling melody and dynamics of the better-known Symphony No.7 before suddenly dropping to a curiously unsettling conclusion.

The Allegretto second movement was almost whimsical; a characteristic Fisch coaxed along with deft directions down to another abrupt cadence.

The Tempo di minuetto third stanza was definitely a Classical throwback, a gentle dance measure with trumpet highlights over mellow horns and woodwind as strings meandered through to another backwoods halt.

It was left to the Allegro vivace finale to revive the vigour of the opening, almost experimental in harmonic progressions with disruptive dynamics and rhythm, before finally rendering a typical Beethoven-like crash-bang conclusion.

Ovations for cellos, horns and clarinettist Allan Meyer wound up the night.

WASO returns to the Concert Hall on Friday and Saturday, June 10 and 11, at 7.30pm, with Elgars Cello Concerto and Bruckners Symphony No.3.

http://www.waso.com.au

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WA Symphony Orchestra and Asher Fisch play Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms at Perth Concert Hall - The West Australian

For the first time on Rewind of the Living Dead, we review a TV series as we crank up the Kate Bush and remember friends dont lie as we review Stranger Things Season 4, Volume 1

Horror has always found a home on television but its hard to imagine anything capturing the attention of the pop culture zeitgeist like Stranger Things has done over the past few years.

Developed by the Duffer brothers, the series based in the 1980s was equal parts nostalgia and great storytelling while making titles like Eleven and the Demogorgon household names across the globe.

When Stranger Things season 3 ended, the evil Mindflayer had been stopped but Eleven lost her powers and the gateway to the Upside Down has seemingly ended Chief Jim Hoppers life.

Season 4 picks up with Eleven and the Byers family living in California, Mike and Dustin teaming up with a new friend named Eddie and a nightmarish presence suddenly lurking in Hawkins that is far scarier than any big bad before it.

For the first time on Rewind of the Living Dead, we review a TV series as we crank up the Kate Bush and remember friends dont lie as we review Stranger Things Season 4, Volume 1

Link:

PODCAST: Rewind of the Living Dead Reviews 'Stranger Things' Season 4, Volume 1 - Nerdcore Movement