Spoleto Festival Update

In Charleston during the Spoleto Festival and not sure what to see? Fear not, I'm here to help. I checked out the Chinese opera Monkey: Journey to the West on Friday and you can read my review here. Some people found it bewildering, too contemporary or too exotic for their tastes. I ate it up like a tasty peach.

On saturday I caught Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief by Paula Vogel. I'd heard great things about the show and although it's slight, it still packs a wallop as it charts the Othello heroine's lusty life up to her final brush with death.

After that I went straight to see A Devil Inside, a zany murder mystery at the College of Charleston. The real star of the show was actor/set designer Richard Dunn, who provided some mesmerizing monologues and crammed half a New York street onto the stage with a split set.

I had to run as if the devil himself was after me to get to the Footlights Theatre for This War is Live, a late night take on the Iraq conflict from the perspective of embedded journalists. As far as I'm concerned, there aren't enough plays that have journalists as the heroes. But maybe I'm biased.