The Most Revolutionary Art Form

Can a vibrant and cosmopolitan artistic scene heal the wounds of Afghanistan’s traumatic past?

Ishaan Tharoor

Arthur Miller: 1915–2005

The politics of a progressive playwright.

Tony Kushner

Presumed Innocent

Unlike news reports, theater isn’t expected to stick to the facts. By nature, the form is duplicitous, built on a sandy foundation of make-believe and pretense.

Alisa Solomon

Advertisements for Myself

Solo theatrical performances are like ads. Everyone claims to hate them but nevertheless finds the good ones irresistible. A good ad acts like a tonic, making a new idea easy to swallow.

Jonathan Kalb

Company Man

The name Shakespeare in Britain is rather like the names Ford, Disney and Rockefeller in the United States. He is less an individual than an institution, less an artist than an apparatus.

Terry Eagleton

The Closest of Strangers

Tony Kushner’s latest play, Caroline, or Change, left me contemplating its curious title, which suggests an indecisive playwright. Why not just Caroline, or simply Change?

Baz Dreisinger

What Are They Reading?

“People try to be so fussy and particular when they look at politics,” observes Zillah, a character in Tony Kushner’s 1987 play, A Bright Room Called Day, “but what I think an understandin

William Johnson

Playing the Field

“In society the homosexual’s life must be discreetly concealed. As material for drama, that life must be even more intensely concealed.

David Kaufman

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation

The revival of a highly regarded play can either enhance or diminish its reputation.

David Kaufman

‘What Silent Love Hath Writ’

At the Brooklyn Academy of Music this month, the Harvey Theater reclaims its original name–the Majestic–with the arrival of director Sam Mendes’s beautiful renderings of Chekhov’s Uncle Va