OKAY, STOPPARD

My Croation correspondent points out that Tom Stoppard plays don't suck. I agree. I acted in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in high school, and I have fond memories of it. But every character in that play is trying to get something from someone. They all have goals and problems. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, for example, are doomed, and they're starting to realize it, and desperate to figure out something to do about it.

I also liked Balm in Gilead by Lanford Wilson. I admired the Cabaret Voltaire put on at Columbia when I was hanging out there in 1983.

It's just that bad movies are so much more rewarding than bad theater...