I have somewhat belatedly made my way through Friday's New York Times. There I found a review by Ben Brantley of a new production of King Lear. It is being staged at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Being a native Bronxite I have no idea where that is (I can barely find Brooklyn!). Any current residents of the Big Apple been there? In any case, back to Brantley.

He applauds the production, directed by Arin Arbus, for its focus on the domestic drama, the interrelations among a dysfunctional, but (royalty aside) not untypical family. Here is the quote that caught my attention:

I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly experienced family quarrels in which an ostensibly small slight assumed a long and smothering life of its own. The imp of the perverse (to borrow from Poe) is never more self-sabotagingly present than in arguments with loved ones, when feelings run so deep that we can’t even fathom them.

And they're not even Italian!