Psychosis. Architecture. Rock music. Dead stars. Racial politics. Could this be another Seriously Entertaining show from the House of SpeakEasy? You might think that; we couldn’t possibly comment. But yes, this month’s line-up is certainly a sizzler. Best-selling novelist Tom Rob Smith rubs shoulders with House of Cards creator Beau Willimon; poet and actress Amber Tamblyn clinks glasses with Turkish author and human rights activist Elif Shafak; and rock journalist Lisa Robinson breaks bread with Obie Award-winning playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. Get a taster of what you might expect on Tuesday with our pick of the internet’s videos. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins‘s plays include Neighbors, Appropriate, War, and An Octoroon, which recently concluded a triumphant second run at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn. In his review of the transfer, The New York Times‘s Ben Brantley commented, “in its current incarnation, ‘An Octoroon’ feels even richer and more resonant than it did before, both funnier and more profoundly tragic.” In our review, we called it “an eloquent dissertation on the seeming impossibility of talking meaningfully about race in the United States.” Jacobs-Jenkins won the Obie Award for best new American play for An Octoroon and Appropriate in 2014; here he talks about his historical sources for An Octoroon and the battle over authentically representing slaves. In several decades traveling […]

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith Grand Central Publishing, 2014; 400pp You’re walking home. You get a phone call from your father. He’s upset. Your mother has been committed to an asylum. “The symptoms started gradually,” he tells you; “anxiety and odd comments, we can all suffer from that. Then came the allegations. She claims she has proof, she talks about evidence and suspects, but it’s nonsense and lies.” Before you know it, you’re meeting your mother at the airport. She looks crumpled, distressed; she’s lost weight. She’s carrying with her a bag which she says contains “evidence that I’m not mad. Evidence of crimes being covered up.” What do you do, and who do you believe? This is the intriguing premise of Tom Rob Smith‘s new thriller, The Farm. It also actually happened, pretty much, to Smith. Like his protagonist, Daniel, he’s half-Swedish on his mother’s side, his parents retired to a farm in a remote community in Sweden, and he was disturbed one day on his way home by a call from his father telling him his mother had been committed. Like Tilde in The Farm, she also managed to discharge herself, fly to England, and attempt to convince her son that his […]