C.Kunin: Reminds me - was listening to the radio in the car and KPPC's "Book Worm" - really Michael Silverblat - had a guest who had written a collection of short stories, one of them a response to "Signs and Symbols." Not my cuppa, so it went right out of my mind, but thanks to the web, here it is: Lorrie Moore: Bark
J.Mello: Three other short-stories receive a new dressing here:
A Dashing Fellow at the New Diorama | Theatre review
Sunday 27th April 2014
A Dashing Fellow is an adaption of three separate Vladimir Nabokov short stories: A Matter of Chance, A Nursery Tale and A Dashing Fellow, brought together to tell a tale of journeys, exile and longing. Set in Berlin, where Nabokov himself was living in exile during the Russian Revolution, the lives of three individuals – Erwin, a man who is so crippled by his shyness that he is set apart from society, Konstantin, a scheming Russian adulterer of a travelling sales man, and Alexey, a narcotised Russian exile who longs for his wife Lena – perfectly encapsulate the themes and emotions that are constant throughout Nabokov’s novels.
Combining three short stories, taking Nabokov’s own texts, adapting new script and adding music cannot have been an easy feat, but it is done here to perfection. The sense of journey, movement and time are dispersed between magnificent segments of Nabokovian wordplay and prose, which leaves the audience enchanted. The added music is worrying at first, though it gives a “mother Russia” feel to the play, which ties in nicely to Nabokov’s own theme of nostalgia and longing.
A Dashing Fellow at the New Diorama
The Upcoming
A Dashing Fellow is an adaption of three separate Vladimir Nabokov short stories: A Matter of Chance, A Nursery Tale and A Dashing Fellow
Nastassja Smart
A Dashing Fellow is at the New Diorama Theatre until 17th May 2014, for further information or to book visit here.