Author Archives: Hayley Byrnes

The idea of sexual innuendo is all too present in the Yale Cabaret’s latest production, “Ermyntrude and Esmeralda,” adapted and directed by Hunter Kaczorowski DRA ’14. But don’t be fooled by the title’s Elizabethan echoes. More fitting, I think, is the play’s self-styled moniker: “naughty puppet show.”

Darkness — flip. Unknown — flip. Fear — flip. With each slight flick of the wrist, a studious Yalie reveals the Farsi equivalents to each tragic term. Displayed in the moments before Monday’s screening of “Iranian Taboo” began, those flashcards conveyed a melancholic flavor that was all too fitting. The film, as the latest documentary by Dutch-Iranian director Reza Allamehzadeh, depicts the experience of the minority Baha’i community in Iran. It is an experience of prejudice, injustice and, above all else, silence (that is, the titular “taboo”).

If art museums are the 180-minute foreign films that few watch, then exhibitions are the awards ceremonies for those unpopular films.

According to students and faculty members interviewed, each of whom follows the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the atmosphere on campus surrounding the issue is generally calm and respectful, with an emphasis on communication over confrontational activism.

In a pitch-black theater, a voice rings with a clear Southern drawl: “I hate theater.” Thus begins “The Drowsy Chaperone,” a postmodern throwback to 1920s-era screwball musicals. After a few moments of disillusioned mumblings, the lights go up to reveal Ryan Bowers ’14, the show’s lonely bachelor and unofficial cultural critic who’s known as “Man »

Look like you’re having the time of your life. Sway with the grace of a wheat stalk. Dip it low. Oh, and don’t wear shoes. No, I’m not giving you cheesy first-time sex advice. I’m telling you the secret to a successful bhangra dance. As a bhangra virgin, I was deflowered Tuesday evening after attending »