The Big Picture and the Closeup

The shows discussed here, brave and iconoclastic about sex, or mixing opera and cabaret, or presenting the opposition of plutocracy and philanthropy with theater piece tools, remind us how vital it is that the theater keep on giving us things we haven’t seen before, might not be comfortable watching, things that stun us and surprise us. I would go so far as to say that if theater ever stops giving us edgy work, it will cease to be theater. Here’s to edgy.

There is an overlay of mutual incomprehension in the struggle over the Innocence of Muslims video. But I would submit that both sides still have pretty clear ideas about what is at stake.