A flurry of items of theatrical interest this week:

• Two Views of Julius Caesar: As Victor and as Victim (A couple of productions of Julius Caesar in New York)

• Boal’s New Play Raises Questions About Truth From Antiquity (one of the above: 23 Knives)

• Hotel Medea (London)

• Curious ‘Trojan’ still worth seeing (Trojan Women 2.0 – Vegas)

• Sound system blows away cast of Mee’s ‘Trojan Women 2.0’ (ditto)

• Covedale Center: ‘Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum’ (Somewhere in Kentucky)

• Tyranny shown artistically (You Nero somewhere in California)

… and of course, it’s always useful to have photos:

• Thersites – APA 2009

For some reason over the past week or so there has been a spate of reviewish sorts of things of plays etc. with a Classical focus … here are the links in no particular order:

• Pencil This In (Gothamist on The Judgment of Paris; includes a link to a video preview)

• Euripides’ ‘Medea’ reborn at Birdcage, but falls short of accomplishment (Chico Enterprise Record)

• Trojan Source Drama of war’s aftermath modernizes ancient Greek classic (Las Vegas Review Journal on Trojan Women 2.0)

• Kick-start this cracking idea (Bexley Times on the Bacchae)

• An eloquent dance to the death (Financial Times …  the same production)

• In Blood: The Bacchae (The Stage … definitely the same production as the previous)

• In Blood: The Bacchae (Guardian … ditto)

• Finding sympathy for McKenna’s murdering Medea (Globe and Mail)

• The timeless allure of sad, bad and mad (Globe and Mail with another review of the same production?)

• McKenna rises above tragedy (The Star weighs in too)

• Mirvish Presents ‘Medea’ for a Limited Run at Canon (as does Broadway World)

• Medea: A Bliss For Cuban Theater (Cuba News)

• Review: ‘You, Nero’ at South Coast Repertory (LA Times)

… and we’ll close from a review in Variety of a new production of Rich and Famous, which includes a character described thusly:

There’s the randy, famous older composer (Stephen DeRosa, resourcefully amusing as a harsh caricature of Leonard Bernstein) who’s agreed to write music for Bing’s forced Greek-mythic marriage of “Odyssey” and “Iliad” entitled “The Odiad.”