Julia Lloyd-George
Mask & Bauble makes history with The History Boys
The most effective litmus test for a fantastic play is often the most basic. Every audience member responds differently, and many will walk away with few lasting impressions of the couple of hours they just spent in a darkened room, watching actors flit across the stage for their entertainment. It’s rare that someone walks away with anything more enduring from that experience - it’s only the greatest plays that have this effect, the ones worth remembering.
By Julia Lloyd-George October 18, 2012
Talking tough with Wire writer George Pelecanos
While working at his father’s D.C. diner as a teenager during the ‘70s, writer George Pelecanos had already identified a physical line of segregation between urban city dwellers. Referring to the diner’s counter as a tangible barrier between the working class—the immigrants and minorities—and the paying customers who were mostly white professionals, Pelecanos could see a microcosm of society within the confines of an unassuming small business.
By Julia Lloyd-George October 11, 2012
Funny business: D.C.’s second-tier comedy scene
Walking into Penn Social, an E Street bar, on a Sunday night provides a glimpse into your average D.C. watering hole. Helmeted football players sprint across several flat-screens while young urban professionals mingle and cheer on their favorite teams with beer in hand. Nothing seems to be amiss here, and yet it’s a sore sight for any local comedy fan’s eyes.
By Julia Lloyd-George October 4, 2012
Pig Iron Theater Company partners with Georgetown
It’s not often that an experimental play touting a mix of Thoreau and reflection on Japanese natural disasters comes to Georgetown’s campus, but one has arrived--an autobiographical piece by avant-garde Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada, Zero Cost House is the product of a collaboration between Georgetown and acclaimed Pig Iron Theater Company. With the company coming to campus straight from the play’s premiere at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, the Davis Performing Arts Center will be host to a weekend of actors doing everything from wearing rabbit costumes to playing the ukulele as they ponder Okada’s evolving attitude toward Walden in the context of Japan’s recent environmental disasters.
By Julia Lloyd-George September 27, 2012
No one knows what The Master is, but it’s provocative
Every so often, one comes across something—a book, a piece of art or music, a film—that intimidates and challenges to the point of breaking a kind of mental barrier. The Master, director Paul Thomas Anderson’s astounding new film, undeniably falls into this increasingly elusive category.
By Julia Lloyd-George September 20, 2012
Critical Voices: The Killers, Battle Born
Four years is a long time to keep fans waiting, especially with the crazed fan base that the Killers enjoy. The band’s last album, Day & Age (2008), turned out one major smash hit, “Human,” with a chorus that unfailingly inspires sing-alongs while creating confusion about how “dancer” is somehow the opposite of “human.” However, on that electronia- and disco-inspired album, the band otherwise failed to produce the kind of sweeping, energetic anthems of 2004’s Hot Fuss and 2006’s Sam’s Town which made them such a deservedly successful group.
By Julia Lloyd-George September 20, 2012
Pulitzer-nominated wrestling play is a major knockout
We’ve known it all along, though we still revel in every outrageous, distorted reflection of true life that is thrown at us—in television, “reality” is a term that should be taken with a sizeable grain of salt. The world of televised wrestling, powered by the sheer volume of entertainment that raw human conflict can provide, is surprisingly no different from the carefully engineered documentations of beauty pageants or Kardashian daily living pervading programs which ought to be inviting skepticism.
By Julia Lloyd-George September 13, 2012
Watch out bras, there’s a new feminism in town
There’s more than one “f” word in modern society. And, if you can believe it, the one I have in mind is considerably more incendiary than the one you’re probably... Read more
By Julia Lloyd-George September 12, 2012
Georgetown alum’s Sundance breakout is no snooze
“Remember: you’re on my side.” In his closely autobiographical film, Sleepwalk with Me, Mike Birbiglia (COL ‘00) plays a struggling comic who seems to realize that he’s not always very likable. A pizza addict and sleepwalker with dangerous tendencies, who makes countless slip-ups while questioning an idyllic relationship, Matt Pandamiglio (Birbiglia) can seem quite a pathetic specimen of humanity.
By Julia Lloyd-George September 6, 2012
LaBeouf’s Lawless fails to ‘shine
Any film starring Shia LaBeouf sporting a questionable southern accent is already at a disadvantage, and it’s a handicap that the well-meaning Lawless fails to compensate for in the ways... Read more
By Julia Lloyd-George August 30, 2012