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Twisters
Or: Stormy Weather Ah yes, a tale as old as time. Talented young woman returns to her natural environs from the big city, reconnecting...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
Merrily We Roll Along at Alley Rep
Or: Take What You Want, And Pay For It I’ll level with you, dear reader: Merrily is hard show to do. It’s Sondheim, so you can’t hum it,...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
Monkey Man
Or: … And Some Go To Therapy Written, directed, and staring in his new feature, Dev Patel has not come a long way. This is not a snub on...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
What the Constitution Means to Me at BCT (MainStage)
Or: The Woman and the Dog Every time I see Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me I am astounded at what powerful piece of...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20252 min read
Blink Twice
Or: Making Memories It’s a real shame that a good psychological thriller, to maintain its mystery and shock, must obfuscate its plot as...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
Dune II
Or: Desert Power II, The Desert Gets More Powerful Or, still: Dear Abby, My Partner is the Messiah, and a Very Naughty Boy. I have a...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
Clyde’s at Boise Contemporary Theater
Or: Scorch marks and the Holy Sandwich One certainty, you will leave this play hungry. Even from the first moment an audience settles...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
Omoiyari a song film by Kishi Bashi
Or: “It’s as much about love, as loss.” How do we reinterpret our past? How do we keep the old stories, of tragedy and resilience, alive,...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
Wipeout at Rivendell Theater
Or: Life’s a Beach, Enjoy the Ride. How do you set a play on the water? Aurora Real De Asua’s new work takes place entirely on the ocean...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20252 min read
Lizzie, The Musical
Or: Somebody Will Die (And we’re all fine with that) I do like a Good For Her story done well. Lizzie Borden (Cami Nicols), subject of...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20252 min read
Sense and Sensibility at ISF
Or: Irreverence Done Right Adaptation, particularly of a well loved and intimately known work, is a tightrope. A playwright cannot chisel...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20254 min read
Asteroid City
Or: Lost Horizon As much as they are parodied and belittled the films of Wes Andrson do tend to stick their landing. You can raise an...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
The Christians at BCT (MainStage)
Or: How to Define an Absence Even the smell is somehow the same. That particular scent of religion toasted up, on Sunday mornings, of...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
The Last Kingdom, on Netflix
Or: Mud, Blood, Sax’n Violence “I need to kill someone! And I choose him!” Thus seethes Uhtred Ragnarson (Alexander Draymon). He’s...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20257 min read
Be Afraid of This Virginia Woolf, a new play
Or: And a Porcupine in A Pair Tree Both funny and horrifying to practitioners of the dramatic arts, Kevin Labrum’s one act comedy, Be...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20252 min read
Spiderman: Across the Spider-verse
Or: Tangled Webs When we last left Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) he had come into his own as his own Spiderman, saved the world, and bid...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20252 min read
Hadestown at the Morrison Center
Or: Come Home With Me There’s nothing quite like Hadestown. The extravagant, elegant musical born from Anais Mitchell’s bare-boards folk...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20252 min read
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Or: Feathers and Fangs I will confess to not being much impressed with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes when Suzanne Collins unleashed...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20253 min read
What The Constitution Means To Me at BCT
Or: Out of the Penumbra I have a particular fondness for shows that are acts of storytelling. What the Constitution Means to Me...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20252 min read
Middle the the World, a world premier at BCT
Or: Non Zero Sum Two economists meet in a Manhattan ride share. Out of such meetings are worlds sent spinning. Glenn (Christian Telesmar)...
Ben Kemper
May 10, 20252 min read
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