Slave Girl

CAMBRIDGE - In “Harriet Jacobs,’’ Lydia R. Diamond’s searing dramatization of America’s legacy of slavery, Diamond mobilizes her gifted pen and her powers of empathy to tell the story of one extraordinary woman. How extraordinary? Try this: Jacobs escaped her North Carolina master in 1835 and hid for seven years in a tiny crawl space in the attic of her grandmother’s house, forced to watch her two young children through a peephole, before making her way north to freedom.

CAMBRIDGE - In “Harriet Jacobs,’’ Lydia R. Diamond’s searing dramatization of America’s legacy of slavery, Diamond mobilizes her gifted pen and her powers of empathy to tell the story of one extraordinary woman. How extraordinary? Try this: Jacobs escaped her North Carolina master in 1835 and hid for seven years in a tiny crawl space in the attic of her grandmother’s house, forced to watch her two young children through a peephole, before making her way north to freedom.

"The simple annals of the poor," is how Abraham Lincoln characterized his early life. But he became president of the United States, which made his origins and personal story fit subject for unlimited historical interest. For most plain folk, even the undestitute, it isn't like that. There were surely countless brave and accomplished lives, such as that of the fugitive slave Harriet Jacobs, but those, like hers, are usually forgotten. But in one of the landmarks in historical scholarship, over the last two decades historian Jean Fagan Yellin has removed the obscurities...

Richmond, Va.: 1857. In a late-night, liquor-fueled game of poker, one Augustus Cain loses over $300 - more money than he has. The only way he might raise that much cash would be to sell the only thing he loves, his horse, Hermes. However, Eberly, the wealthy planter who beat Cain at cards, offers him a second option. Cain is quite talented in a line of work that is legal and lucrative but dangerous: tracking down runaway slaves. A boy and girl had fled Eberly's plantation recently.

Richmond, Va.: 1857. In a late-night, liquor-fueled game of poker, one Augustus Cain loses over $300 - more money than he has. The only way he might raise that much cash would be to sell the only thing he loves, his horse, Hermes. However, Eberly, the wealthy planter who beat Cain at cards, offers him a second option. Cain is quite talented in a line of work that is legal and lucrative but dangerous: tracking down runaway slaves. A boy and girl had fled Eberly's plantation recently.

"The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam" is a vanity film refreshingly lacking in vanity. Seven years in the making, it's a labor of love for first-time director Kayvan Mashayekh, a Houston-raised Iranian-American lawyer who quit his practice to make a movie about the Persian astronomer-poet Omar Khayyam (1048-1123), the author of "The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam" and a proto-Renaissance man who placed reason above faith. After Sept. 11, 2001, "Keeper" was a project no one wanted to finance, but Mashayekh soldiered on, getting enough funding to film in Uzbekistan...

LOS ANGELES - Denise Darcel, the French-born actress known for vampy roles in such films as "Vera Cruz" and "Thunder in the Pines," has died. Ms. Darcel's son Craig said she died Dec. 23 at a Los Angeles hospital at 87 of complications from a ruptured aneurysm. She also leaves another son, Chris. After coming to the United States in 1947, Ms. Darcel starred opposite several leading men in the 1950s, including "Battleground" with Van Johnson, "Tarzan and the Slave Girl" with Lex Barker, "Westward the Women" with Robert Taylor, and "Young Man...

Denise Darcel, the French-born actress known for vampy roles in such films as "Vera Cruz" and "Thunder in the Pines," has died. She was 87. Darcel's son, Craig, said Monday that she died Dec. 23 at a Los Angeles hospital from complications from an emergency surgery to repair a ruptured aneurysm. After coming to the U.S. in 1947, Darcel starred opposite several leading men in a string of films in the ‘50s, including "Battleground" with Van Johnson, "Tarzan and the Slave Girl" with Lex Barker, "Westward the Women" with Robert Taylor and "Young Man with Ideas" with Glenn...

For spectacle, Puccini's "Turandot" is exceeded only by Verdi's "Aida. " It would seem an iffy choice for a touring production. Allowances would have to be made for simple sets and a reduced chorus and orchestra (Puccini wanted extra of both). It was hardly to be expected, therefore, that Teatro Lirico D'Europa's production at Cutler Majestic Theater on Friday would have half the audience on its feet. It triumphed by having principal singers with glorious voices and considerable stage savvy.

1001 Play by Jason Grote Directed by: Megan Sandberg-Zakian. Set, Cristina Todesco. Lights, David Roy. Costumes, Elisabetta Polito. Presented by Company One. At: Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre. Through Aug. 13. Tickets: $30-$38 ($15 students). 617-933-8600, www.companyone.org Is there a sexier tale than Scheherazade's 1,001 nights - how she beguiled her royal husband, Shahriyar, with stories of Sinbad and Aladdin and Ali Baba to keep him from cutting off her head?

"The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Khayyam" is a vanity film refreshingly lacking in vanity. Seven years in the making, it's a labor of love for first-time director Kayvan Mashayekh, a Houston-raised Iranian-American lawyer who quit his practice to make a movie about the Persian astronomer-poet Omar Khayyam (1048-1123), the author of "The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam" and a proto-Renaissance man who placed reason above faith. After Sept. 11, 2001, "Keeper" was a project no one wanted to finance, but Mashayekh soldiered on, getting enough funding to film in Uzbekistan and to hire Vanessa...

"The simple annals of the poor," is how Abraham Lincoln characterized his early life. But he became president of the United States, which made his origins and personal story fit subject for unlimited historical interest. For most plain folk, even the undestitute, it isn't like that. There were surely countless brave and accomplished lives, such as that of the fugitive slave Harriet Jacobs, but those, like hers, are usually forgotten. But in one of the landmarks in historical scholarship, over the last two decades historian Jean Fagan Yellin has removed...