by Mike Hoban

 

Winter Solstice – Written by Roland Schimmelpfennig; Translated by David Tushingham; Directed by Brooks Reeves; Sound Design by David Reiffel; Costumes by Elizabeth Rocha; Set and Lighting Design by Danielle Fauteux Jacques. Presented by the Apollinaire Theatre Company, Chelsea Theatre Works, 189 Winnisimmet St., Chelsea through Mar. 11

 

When I was younger, many of my left-leaning friends and acquaintances would casually throw out the word ‘fascist’ to describe an authority figure or institution whose opinions or policies differed from what we thought was right. Later, during the Obama years, those on the far right would casually refer to the president as a Nazi – usually for something like wanting to pass Obamacare and theoretically take away people’s right to choose their own doctors. The inappropriate application of such extreme terms in both cases has served to greatly diminish the former effectiveness of these terms when it comes to calling out what is now going on politically in the U.S. and globally – the rise in increasingly aggressive neo-fascist activism and its subsequent effect on governing bodies. This has not happened overnight, but instead has been a creeping contagion that is slowly being normalized in all forms of media – whether intentionally or unintentionally – and the idea that “It Can’t Happen Here,” is being debunked on an almost daily basis.

Read more “In Apollinaire’s Winter Solstice, the Chill Runs Deep”