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“‘Onorate l’altissimo poeta!’ — ‘Honour the supreme poet!’ In Dante’s Divine Comedy, these words are said of Virgil, Dante’s guide through Hell and Purgatory. Now, 700 years after Dante’s death on September 14, 1321, it seems more right than ever to apply the words to Dante himself.

“Dante’s reputation has never stood higher. He has been revered by an extraordinary number of the greatest poets and writers of the past hundred years — Eliot, Pound, Joyce, Beckett, Borges, Montale, and the great Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents, to name only a few.” [. . .] –Robert Chandler, Financial Times, September 28, 2021 (retrieved March 30, 2022)

Chandler’s article, published originally in the British newspaper Financial Times, goes on to review three Dante-related books: Dante by Alessandro Barbero, a translation of Purgatorio by D.M. Black, and Visions of Heaven by Martin Kemp. View our posts for each of these by clicking their respective links. The full text of the article is available here.

“Dante’s Inferno, a highly condensed and remarkably theatrical staged version of the 14th-century epic that takes Dante, played here by Bill Camp and guided by the poet Virgil (Reg E. Cathey), on a fantastic voyage into Hades. Mr. Willis and Leslie Beatty complete the cast, portraying an assortment of damned souls in this economical, two-hour production. And these two — how shall we put it? — have all the fun.

“Like more tormented versions of the sad sacks Dorothy collects on the yellow brick road, they confide their tales of woe to the visitor from another world. Mr. Willis and Ms. Beatty cringe and shudder, shrink and quake, affixing faces worthy of compassion to the teeming multitudes of the Underworld. As the acting opportunities pile up, the surprise of this Inferno becomes clear: even if it is not quite a fully realized verse play, it is much more than a staged reading.

“Mr. Scanlan and his designers, John Michael Deegan and Sarah G. Conly, transfer Dante’s hell to the late 20th century. Dressed in business clothes, the actors traverse a mirrored multilevel set that vaguely resembles one of those nondescript office buildings along the interstate (which are some esthetes’ idea of hell, anyway). As the story unfolds, so does the scenery, which is divided into compartments reached by ladders and stairs that denote the descending circles of hell.

“Dante’s Inferno reflects the poem’s episodic nature. It’s how skillfully Mr. Scanlan and his collaborators operate within the episodes that makes this an intriguing evening. Mr. Willis is especially rewarding in his myriad character roles, and on both the technical and interpretive level, all four actors speak with a grasp of the work’s power and lyricism. This is a piece that gets better the lower it goes.” [. . .] –Peter Marks, New York Times, September 28, 1998 (retrieved November 26, 2021)

Divinity and damnation — why Dante still matters Article, Financial Times (2021)

NY Times Review: Dante’s Inferno Play, adapted/directed by Robert Scalan (1998)

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