Villain

Kenji Mizoguchi's masterly Sansho the Bailiff (playing Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Enoch Pratt Free Library's Wheeler Auditorium, 400 Cathedral St.) is an epic medieval fable with an ultra-modern sting. It unfolds in an 11th-century Japanese regime that rewards automatic obedience and efficiency, punishes individualism and altruism, and condones private slave camps that grind men and women to death. When the antihero, Zushio (Kisho Hanayagi), an escaped slave who becomes a governor, succeeds in freeing his former fellow captives, he loses everything except his self-respect.

Assurbanipal Babilla's theater company, Purgatorio Ink, is nothing if not ambitious."Suddenly Something Recklessly Gay" -- the work with which this New York-based company is making its Baltimore debut at the Theatre Project -- combines elements of Greek tragedy, domestic drama and the circus to examine parental tyranny.The second installment of a proposed tetralogy called "Babylonian Babies," about the nature of power, the play has roughly 100 subtitles, which take up 2 1/2 pages in the program.

"The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis," by Wole Soyinka. Oxford University Press. 161 pages. $19.95.Only an extraordinary event occasionally propels Nigeria to the front pages of American newspapers, even though it is Africa's most populous country.Such an event occurred last November, when Nigeria's dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, shrugged off worldwide protests and ordered the execution of nine human-rights activists. Among them was Ken Saro-Wiwa, a mild-mannered playwright, whose last words were: "Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues."

One of the most striking and unsettling aspects of Center Stage's harrowing production of "The Investigation" - Peter Weiss' play based on the 1963-1965 Auschwitz trials - is the matter-of-factness of its portrait of evil. There's a litany of details: Zyklon B, the gas used in the gas chambers, came in one-pound containers that "looked like coffee cans." They cost 50 cents a pound. Sixteen pounds were required to gas 2,000 people, for a total cost, as one judge calculates, of $8. "Reality, however opaque it may appear, can be explained in every detail," Weiss wrote of his theory of documentary theater.

Oh, that crazy Madwoman of Chaillot! Late in life she makes the shocking discovery that -- zut alors! -- there's wickedness in the world. So, being a take- charge type, she decides to do away with the evildoers.In theory, French playwright Jean Giraudoux got away with this hyper-simplistic story by dubbing the protagonist "mad." But even if you make that allowance, and even if you relegate the plot to the realm of fables, this 1945 script still reeks of Hallmark sentimentality and a childish dependence on happily-ever-after-ism.

As the design revolution marches steadily across America, innovative furnishings are staking their claims in offices. Astute entrepreneurs know they can toss the solid, stolid, pseudo-Colonial credenzas and still present a professional image. Topdeq, which sells European-designed pieces and accessories for the workplace, is an excellent resource. The catalog's "wow" factor is high, from its shocking-pink cover to its pages filled with fresh, bold, sometimes playful pieces by such notable designers as Sir Norman Foster, Vico Magistretti and Philippe Starck.

Fox is having the same trouble with its TV movies that it has with its series.When it hits one -- as with a series like "The Simpsons" and a movie like "Robin Hood" -- it's out of the park, a home run. But too many of the fourth network's other productions are barely infield dribblers, easy outs.What Fox can't seem to get down is hitting line drives, consistently turning out good shows and movies that might not be great but are of a quality that will keep the viewers coming back week after week.

Sarasota, Fla.--A few days after she was born, Kimberly Mays was switched with another baby in the hospital nursery. Two sets of parents went home with the wrong infant.One of the many unfortunate results of that 14-year-old incident is that everyone involved has received multimillion-dollar settlements from the hospital.They therefore can afford to keep suing each other till the cows come home.''This case has been in court for five long years!'' cried one of Kimberly's three attorneys Monday.

I clicked onto the Ravens website this morning and saw “ Flacco vs. Big Ben ” splashed across my screen. With the NFL draft now behind us and not much going on in the next couple of months, it looks like we are now in the compare-and-contrast portion of the offseason. We in the media have to keep you clicking somehow. But I'm going to partake in the conversation, sparked by a blog post written by my former colleague Jamison Hensley , because you can now make a compelling argument for both AFC North quarterbacks now that Joe Flacco has a Lombardi Trophy, one his fingerprints are all over after he tossed 11 touchdowns in the playoffs.

Chicago. -- "Government'' is a swear word now. We are constantly told that it is a nest of privilege, corruption and incompetence. One wonders how we ever won a war with this foolish thing in charge.Those who speak this way often want to let private industry or private charity take on what the government has bungled -- or at least to ''devolve'' activities away from the federal government toward smaller units, to state or local jurisdictions.Yet business news is full of tales about privilege, corruption and incompetence.