Ben Kemper
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Or: “We didn’t start the fire (it was the great scaly thing over yonder)” If there’s one thing to be said for this, the second...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20234 min read
The Little Prince
Or: “What is Essential Is Invisible to the Eye” It is a constant amazement and vexation to me that the shows I love cause me so much more...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20233 min read
Alice in Wonderland
Or: To sit in solemn silence as whimsy bubbles from your ears. This is a show to have fun at. You do not sit down to puzzle over some...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20234 min read
The Book Thief, the movie
Or: Hope and Death spring eternal The film is never going to be as good as the book. That is just one of the hard facts you have to...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20233 min read
Street Justice: Condition Red
Or: Vengeance wears a Mullet Imagine every trope you can think of from 80’s action movies. brutal, bruce lee inspired hand to hand...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20233 min read
The Dead Prince
Or: Grimmly Good Many people forget how dark fairy tales are supposed to be. They were made for instruction and nothing captures our...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20234 min read
The House Nutcracker
Or: You’d Better Watch Out At long last I have found a christmas story that twines about all the pillars of the holiday: the need to...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20235 min read
Maccers at the National
Or: From muck comes....further muck With his new production of Shakespeare’s Scottish Play, Kenneth Branagh swaggers back to claim the...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20233 min read
The Plowman
Or: A murderous story of murderous stories As we enter the tiny space of the Side Projects Theater we are greeted by sinister sounds of...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20234 min read
An Iliad
Or: Sing in me muse of the rage of Achilles This is what Theater is supposed to be. Or rather, this is how Theater was at it’s outset and...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20236 min read
Pride and Prejudice
Or: An Assembly such as This. Is there any Felicity in the world superior to this? To watch the wit and wisdom, the naughtiness and...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20233 min read
The Sovereign Statement
Or: The Game gets Vicious when the Stakes are Small “All Nations are Narratives”, states Bulal Dardai the creator, writer and puppet...
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Ben Kemper
May 12, 20233 min read
The Dallas Buyers Club
Or: “Handsome, in a dumb hick Texas kind of way”* I swear I’m going to need to visit the doctor; Director Jean-Marc Vallee has so...
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Ben Kemper
May 9, 20234 min read
Marat/Sade
Or: The One Who Knocks There are three moments when Fergus Inder’s production of Marat/Sade really finds its rhythm, it’s pointed edge,...
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Ben Kemper
May 9, 20232 min read
With Two Wings
Or: Light and Airy Fare. Written by Evanston playwright and teacher Anne Negrit, With Two Wings bares us to a strange and wondrous world...
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Ben Kemper
May 9, 20234 min read
Othello at the National Theater
Or: a proper Desert Storm The leitmotif of the National Theatre’s current production of Othello is one of rage bottled in a confined...
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Ben Kemper
May 9, 20233 min read
The 39 Steps
Or: The Man Who Knew Too Much If I wanted to be cruel and lead you astray I could tell you that the 39 Steps is falling to pieces: that...
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Ben Kemper
May 9, 20233 min read
The Hundred Dresses
Or: “I’ll never do Nothing again” It’s tough being a kid. You don’t yet know how to look for answers yet are inundated with questions...
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Ben Kemper
May 9, 20232 min read
Soul Conductor
A new play by Scott Egleston Or: Of Grief, Memory, and Microwave Burritos Noel Coward once wrote “There is no evidence that the life to...
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Ben Kemper
May 9, 20233 min read
The Wheel
Or: Interesting Times There is a curse: “May you live in Interesting Times” that the Chinese have been threatening each other with,...
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