Two from this year’s LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL:

I saw Les Éphémères in two parts on Saturday and Sunday at Park Avenue Armory. There’s a lot I could write about it (of the French genius for extracting poetry from the quotidian, of the remarkable way in which the production cinematizes the stage, of the festival atmosphere that permeates the house) but mostly I want to say that it was ultimately very beautiful and that I recommend it.

Two days earlier, at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater, it was the Katona Jozsef Theater version of Ivanov. I found it fascinating, partly because this is the first time I have actually seen a production of this most psychological of Chekhov’s plays. The highly positive Times review was pretty much on the mark. My decision to make a change in plans to see it was well worth missing whatever it was I did to do so.

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