The boys hop to it, chum, and talk about Dashiell Hammett's 1929 debut novel Red Harvest. While the socialist connotations of the title never truly materialize ("Communism was a red herring"), leaving

Dukes and Bagg were both a little disappointed with how LONG the second half of The Long Goodbye is, with a rather Byzantine and confusing series of plot machinations that only slightly support the en

The lads kick off this series of Chris' called "Relativistic Noir" with Raymond Chandler's remarkable 1959 The Long Goodbye. Both Chris and Jesse are rendered somewhat slack-jawed at the sheer audacit

Gary Shteyngarts overtly Chekhovian novel ends in a distinctly nonChekhovian manner, with hope. However, the hope is dearly earned, as one of the country friends sadly does not survive the second ha

With a small but loyal Zoom audience, Dukes and Bagg propose TWELVE new series, and pick five, including a LISTENER'S CHOICE series. Throughout, they kibbitz, lobby, and respond to chatted questions f

Gary Schteyngarts 2021 pandemic novel is overtly Chekhovian, and the lads love it. A group of friends and family gather in the Hudson valley during the 2020 pandemic leading to betrayals, love triang

Bagg and Dukes watch Louis Malle's wild 1994 film that takes, as its subject, a rehearsal of Andre Gregory's..."performance" of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya. If that sounds convoluted, it is. Gregory a

Anton Chekhov's 1897 play is in many ways even more minimalistic and sad than The Cherry Orchard. Dukes once again struggles to imagine the three dimensions of the story, while recognizing the almost

UMB Theater presents Dr. Dukesimov and his old friend Baggya, commiserating about dreary life, and looking forward to the Upper Middlebrow LIVE Draft. That's coming October 10th, at 5pm PDT, and there

The National Theatre production glimmers with an excellent cast, including Zoe Wanamaker and Conleth Hill. Dukes finds that the performances and the direction/translation choices help raise the stakes