Byliners

'The Psychic' sees laughs in your future

By Cynthia Citron BURBANK, California–A writer with severe writer’s block posts a sign in the window of his basement apartment.  It announces that he will perform a psychic reading for $25.  And so begins Sam Bobrick’s delightfully farcical new comedy The Psychic, now having its world premiere at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank.  Jeffrey Cannata is Adam Webster, the psychic, but he provides a hint […]

'The Psychic' sees laughs in your future Read More »

Cynthia Citron

Something of a holiday lull descends over Israel

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–This is the season sacred to both Jews and Christians. Passover and Easter are arguably the formative events of both communities. To this skeptic, there is no chance that the Easter story of resurrection is historically accurate. There may have been some historical incidents behind the biblical story of the Exodus, but

Something of a holiday lull descends over Israel Read More »

Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USA

Stay awake for 'The Wake'

Heidi Schreck and Deirdre O'Connell (Craig Schwartz photo)

Heidi Schreck and Deirdre O’Connell (Craig Schwartz photo) By Cynthia Citron CULVER CITY, California – The Wake is a play with a lot of p’s in it:  politics, philosophy, polemics, passion, and pathos.  And enough plot for two plays.  In fact, “The Wake” is two plays.  One is the love story: boy loves girl, girl thinks she loves boy, girl loves girl, boy waits it out,

Stay awake for 'The Wake' Read More »

Cynthia Citron, USA

U.S-Israel rift may cool over Passover holiday

JERUSALEM–It’s too early to panic, I hope. President Obama returned to his sweeping demand that Israel stop construction in post-1967 neighborhoods of Jerusalem, extend the construction freeze in settlements outside of Jerusalem beyond the ten months agreed, and take other steps to bring the Palestinians to negotiations. Comments at a high tone have come from

U.S-Israel rift may cool over Passover holiday Read More »

Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USA

So who knew sex could be so boring?

By Cynthia Citron  LOS ANGELES – Who knew sex could be so tedious?  In David Hare’s The Blue Room  11 acts of intercourse are conducted without heat, or charm, or intimacy, or humor, or foreplay. The acotrs climb all over each other into a black out, and from there, it’s just “wham, bam, thank you, ma’am” and “Where are my shoes?”  Moreover, if a cardinal rule of acting

So who knew sex could be so boring? Read More »

Cynthia Citron

General Petraeus sets record straight on Israel

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C.–Sometimes it takes a while for a story to come full circle.  Last week, we reported  on a ForeignPolicy.com blog that said American military officers in CENTCOM blamed U.S. relations with Israel for American weakness in the region. The ForeignPolicy blog went viral on the web, attracting other “authoritative” statements blaming

General Petraeus sets record straight on Israel Read More »

Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USA

U.S.-Israel relations decline as Jerusalem apartment units climb

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Things are not happy on the US-Israel front. Ha’aretz has taken the unusual step of putting a cartoon in the upper middle of its first page. It shows Bibi pushing a wheelbarrow full of construction material to his meeting with a scowling Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. There were two meetings in

U.S.-Israel relations decline as Jerusalem apartment units climb Read More »

Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USA

UK's expulsion of Israeli diplomat a domestic election ploy

By Lloyd Levy LONDON–This week, Britain  expelled an Israeli diplomat, because they suspect that Mossad used forged British passports to kill a Hamas terrorist in Dubai.  It needs to be pointed out that there is no definite evidence that Israel carried out the attack, and thus the issue was a very public way of attacking

UK's expulsion of Israeli diplomat a domestic election ploy Read More »

Lloyd Levy, Middle East, USA