The trick in Henrik Ibsen\’s \”Enemy of the People\” — now in a Royal National Theatre production at the Ahmanson — is realizing that a play which is ostensibly about water contamination and environmental pollution is really about political corruption.
When Steven Spielberg first saw Adam Goldberg in the television series \”Relativity,\” the director scribbled a three-word memo to himself: \”intense, funny, Jewish.\”
\”The Cider House Rules,\” which stretches over two nights and six hours, is a bit like a marathon race, in which the runner gets off to a slow start, picks up speed in the middle distance, and breaks the tape in a dazzling finish.
I was caught in the cruel cogs of a heartless machine. I was stripped of my humanity and dignity. I was without representation or recourse.
I was in traffic court.
Debut filmmaker Darren Aronofsky manages to sound incredulous about the Jewish sci-fi flick that has made him a star. \”You don\’t think God, math and bad-ass Jews makes for a Hollywood movie?\” he quips of \”PI,\” which won the director\’s prize at Sundance and a $1 million distribution deal.
Berlitz won\’t help. You can\’t listen to tapes in the car. And the Foreign Service programs ignore it completely.
It\’s a \”romance\” language, but the subjunctive is the least of your problems.
Benjamin Gampel, a historian at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, speaks enthusiastically about his Wexner students: \”The Wexner Program is probably the best adult teaching that I can do. They\’re highly motivated; they\’re so successful in their chosen fields, they bring that energy to the classroom. It\’s thrilling.\”
In that funky old Synergy School — now a Noe Valley laundromat — we could do what we wanted (unless it involved littering or hurting someone\’s feelings).
