Endgame by Samuel Beckett, directed by Garry Hynes. A Druid Theatre production at the Irish Arts Center. Set by Francis O'Connor. Photo: Ros Kavanagh. With a depressingly vacuous, celebrity-circus Waiting for Godot   sucking up so much oxygen on Broadway, it’s a delight and relief to see Samuel Beckett produced at the Irish Arts Center by gifted and steely artists with proven talent at plumbing his work. The indomitable Garry Hynes, a Tony-winner and leader of Galway’s Druid

Lacrima , written and directed by Caroline Guiela Nguyen. Set design by Alice Duchange. Photo : Jean-Louis Fernandez I went to Caroline Guiela Nguyen’s Lacrima at BAM with great eagerness and curiosity. This was a major new work by the only woman with serious clout in the French theater (she is artistic director of the Théâtre National de Strasbourg). This much-acclaimed artist of Vietnamese, North African and French heritage wrote and directed Lacrima , a three-hour, inter

Ragtime , directed by Lear DeBessonet, Vivian Beaumont Theater. Photo: Matthew Murphy The Terrence McNally/Stephen Flaherty/Lynn Ahrens musical Ragtime  is not the subtlest theater contraption. Premiered on Broadway in 1998, it’s a big, galumphing machine with very big things to say about America; multiple, interwoven storylines; whimsical interactions of fictional and historical characters; and a 30+ member ensemble. I remember thinking back in 1998 that it was a miracle thi