SELECTED SHORTS XI Tales of Love and Longing

Each year we welcome the advent of Selected Shorts’ new volume of stories, culled from the previous season’s live performances, also broadcast on public radio stations nationwide. Previous volumes have had themes--baseball, food, comedy. This year the thread of “love and longing” celebrates relationships. “We Are Nighttime Travelers” by Ethan Canin ushers in the end of an old couple’s many years. Harold Gould’s moving performance will resonate with listeners as he captures the bittersweet longing so beautifully. Leonard Nimoy is delightful with Thurber’s “The Catbird Seat,” setting just the right tone and evoking response from the live audience. Jill Eikenberry disappoints us in Diane Leslie’s “A Life of Crime.” Uneven delivery of the story of a nanny and her charge in an elegant Hollywood household might be the result of lack of preparation, but, in any case Eikenberry misses some of the subtleties. However, in each selection the evident delight of the actors and their rapport with the audience add a dynamic energy for listening. R.F.W. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB 98]