Tidy Tidbits: Theater & Movies

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WONDERFUL THEATER!

Born with Teeth (Asolo Repertory Theatre)

Will and Kit (Sarasota Herald Tribune)

Born with Teeth is a recent play (2022) by Liz Duffy Adams.  It debuted at the Alley Theatre in Houston and is now being presented around the country.  It’s a historical play with just one setting and two actors in three scenes set in a London tavern in 1592 and 1593.  The characters are the popular successful Christopher (Kit) Marlowe and the then less well-known Will Shakespeare.  Here, they are collaborating on an historical play.  

There is some evidence that the two did collaborate and Duffy Adams has taken that likely fact and woven a drama around it.  Kit baits and taunts the more cautious, overtly timid Will in the opening scene.  Later they spar and trade barbs over the political climate, discuss the dangers lurking around them in this repressive age, and they tease and flirt.   The climax in the last scene comes with a twist.

It is not necessary to know the details of the times, other than to be aware it was a contentious time with factions railing against Queen Elizabeth and several of her courtiers, Raleigh, Cecil, and Essex warring and plotting with or against each other.  Some even believed Marlowe was a spy.

I found the first fifteen minutes a bit slow; perhaps it was getting my head wrapped around the language, but then the play took off and the next hour plus flew by.  Born with Teeth runs through March 29.  It’s yet another example of the Asolo at its finest! (~JWFarrington)

RECENT MOVIES

Black Life: Real vs. Imagined: American Fiction (Amazon Prime)

Monk flanked by his siblings (npr.com)

Another nominee for Best Picture, American Fiction is fun, witty, and satisfying.  A satirical look at fiction that sells, it features a Black writing professor and author of several books.  But Monk hasn’t published anything recently.  Somewhat incensed by all the attention given to a stereotypical, racist depiction of Blacks by another Black author, he takes a pseudonym and writes his own novel of what he thinks white folks want to read about Black people.  The results upset him but gain him far more attention than he ever bargained for.  

One of the great things about this film is its depiction of a successful upper middle class Black family.  Monk, the star is a professor, his sister is a doctor, and his brother, albeit with his own personal issues, is a plastic surgeon.  There is much to like about this film, some food for thought, and an ending with a couple of surprises.  Highly recommended!

Female Friendship & Romance: The Book Club: The Next Chapter (Amazon Prime)

Dynamic foursome (pluggedin.com)

Several years ago, I not quite dragged the Chief Penguin to the cinema in Manhattan to see The Book Club.  It was fun and a nice change of pace, but not much more.  It was redeemed largely by the marvelous cast of Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton, and Mary Steenburgen.  These four talented women, now in their 70’s and 80’s (Fonda is 86!), are together again.  

This time, they’ve convinced their friend Vivian (Fonda), recently engaged, that the women only should go to Italy for her bachelorette party.  Carol and Diane have husbands or partners, and Sharon, a retired judge, is single. 

What follows is silly, partly predictable, and just plain fun.  There’s also a message in there, “carpe diem,” but not exactly expressed that way.  This is a chic flick for sure, but some special guys might enjoy it also.   Call it a delayed Valentine!

SERIES VIEWING: DON’T BOTHER

Expats (Apple TV+)

I read the novel of the same title on which Expats is based and was looking forward to the TV series.  I think I lasted about 20 minutes into the first episode.  Weird, disjointed, and nothing like the book.  I felt somewhat justified when a friend felt similarly.

Good Apprentice (Amazon Prime)

This Italian series about a young woman interested in forensic medicine is one of Walter Presents many offerings.  I watched the first episode and part of the second one.  It’s okay, but seems light, and her frequent clumsiness is overdone.  I’m not going back to it.

Note: Header photo, Pelicans at Robinson Preserve, ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Read, Watch, Get Ready!

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BOOK OF THE WEEK

While You Were Out:  An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger

Author Kissinger (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Meg Kissinger, a noted journalist who spent several decades covering mental illness issues, bares her soul and that of her family in While You Were Out, a candid and raw account of her family’s travails.  Children of the 60’s, she and her seven siblings lived with alcoholic parents and a mother who was also subject to depression.  Life in their household was chaotic yet punctuated by moments of fun and levity.  Problems were never discussed and no one’s behavior or issues was ever really questioned. 

When several of Kissinger’s siblings had their own mental health problems, treatments were tried, but nothing much changed, and there was no chance to query or understand the what and the why.  Even after a self-inflicted death, no talk or therapy was undertaken.  

This can be a hard book to read at points.  To her great credit, Kissinger presents each of her siblings as a multi-dimensional individual with pluses and good traits as well as shortcomings.  It is a tribute to her own strength of character that Kissinger navigated through this thicket of surrounding illness to create the successful life and journalism career she has.  Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)

MY LATEST VIEWING

POLITICS OF FARMING AND BIG AGRICULTURE

Circles of Power (PBS Passport)

Journalist Lansel (Liberation)

Circles of Power, a recent French series (2022), is sometimes more like a documentary than a drama series.  Claire Lansel is an investigative journalist for Quotidienne, a daily newspaper.  When a class of school children visits a grain silo in the north of France, several of them become overwhelmed and collapse.  Thus begins a focus on what caused their sickness.  Small independent farmers, a large agricultural cooperative, the minister of agriculture, union leaders, and a rabble-rousing group of young environmentalists are all players in this many-threaded story.  I wondered if it were based on real incidents, but couldn’t find an answer to that.

This is a drama of painstaking research and difficult interviews with affected individuals, many afraid to speak out. Add in mothers with sick babies and the human side plays out against the politics of likely corporate greed.  The pace is measured with lots of scenes of Claire driving through the countryside, but it kept my interest as I rooted for the “good guys” to prevail.  

NEW ADVENTURES AHEAD

(Zazzle from Pinterest.com)

Next month, the Chief Penguin and I will begin a new adventure.  We will move to a retirement community in North Carolina.  We didn’t anticipate making this kind of move this soon, but the right opportunity presented itself and we accepted.  

Now, we’re deep into downsizing: identifying which furniture pieces will work and in which rooms; going through decades of scrapbooks and memorabilia deciding what can go, what to digitize, and what to just toss; winnowing down and culling kitchen equipment (how many fry pans does one need?); reviewing cherished fine china and glassware to either pass on to family or give up; and making umpteen lists about what to take in the car, which vendors need to be notified, and so on.  Some of it is a process of reducing “clutter,” although one would never call these “precious” items clutter! 

We look forward to living in an urban area where we will be able to walk to stores, restaurants, parks, and the public library.  And a first-class bakery!  We will have family nearby, and, as long as we can, we will travel both here and abroad.  And yes, I plan to continue Jots & Jaunts (www.jauntingjean.com) with regular posts once we get settled.  I’m not signing off yet!

Note: Header photo of ibises on the hunt ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Tidy Tidbits: Page, Screen, & Plate

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RECENT READING: WIVES IN THE 1960’S

Absolution by Alice McDermott

Author McDermott (Macmillan.com)

Set in Saigon in 1963, Absolution focuses on the lives of several wives of Navy officers.  Tricia, just 23, has only been married a short time to lawyer Peter on loan to navy intelligence.  She is taken up by the somewhat older, more sophisticated Charlene, mother of three.  Charlene is forceful, attractive, and domineering and has gathered around her a small group of women to do her bidding.  While society views their primary functions as motherhood and being a good helpmate to their husbands, Charlene has ideas about how to do good and raise money to help the local population.  Employing the talents of a local native seamstress and acquiring a bunch of newly released Barbie dolls, Charlene involves Tricia and others in her charity schemes.  

These events are re-lived sixty years later through the eyes of now senior citizen Tricia and Rainey, Charlene’s daughter (a child at the time). They have reconnected through letters.

I think what McDermott tries to do in portraying a little known aspect of American servicemen’s wives in Vietnam is laudable, but I found this novel hard to like.  Charlene is an unsympathetic character, and Tricia is too easily led until the packed punch of the culminating event. The details of 1960’s life were familiar and convincing, but I expected something more from the renewed connection between Tricia and Rainey, some better reason for retrospectively sharing their memories of that time.  Why did Rainey become significant to Tricia?  For me, it wasn’t clear.

The novel has received significant praise; I give it a qualified recommendation.

VIEWING DELIGHTS 

NEW YORK HIGH SOCIETY

The Gilded Age Season 2 ($ Amazon Prime et al)

Gladys Russell with her parents (TVInsider.com)

Julian Fellowes is masterful!  Creator of Downton Abbey, screenwriter for Gosford Park and The Chaperone among others, his latest drama, The Gilded Age, is both fun and insightful.  Set in 1882 in New York, it follows young Marian Brooks’ entrance into high society with its battles between old money (Mrs. Astor and the van Rhijns) and new (Bertha and George Russell).  Marian is a niece of the van Rhijns, and she and her Aunts Agnes and Ada live across the street from the Russell family.  

A young woman’s goal then was to conduct herself discreetly and find a promising rich man to marry.  Marian breaks with convention by teaching watercolors at a school and is good friends with Peggy Scott, Aunt Agnes’ Black secretary.  Add in Peggy’s parents, and her work as a journalist, and one gets a view of a Black middle class on the rise.  Historic events such as the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge and steelworkers threatening action add richness. They also document the social changes afoot.  

I thought this season was even better than the first one, and I loved the fashions.  The hats are something else! There are 8 episodes, and a third season is planned.   Highly recommended! 

COURAGEOUS FIGHTER PILOTS

Masters of the Air (Apple TV+)

B-17 bomber (AVweb.com)

This is not my usual fare, but the Chief Penguin and I are watching it together on our big TV.  Produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg among others, Masters of the Air, a World War II series is getting rave reviews for its technical effects.  This account of the perilous missions carried out by the American pilots and crews of the 100th Bomb Group is harrowing, finger-biting, and compelling.  Risking daytime raids over Nazi Germany, the ten men in each plane never know whether they will get shot down, lose an engine and limp back, or need to bail out of a flaming plane into enemy territory.  Some missions were successful, and bombs were dropped on the correct target; others failed and some, but not all the men, returned to base still alive. 

Two majors known as Buck and Buckley, very different in style and temperament, are the lead characters.  With them and their men, one feels the physical and the emotional challenges they face in carrying out these missions.  

Based on a book of the same name, the series has nine episodes and is being released weekly.  Three episodes are currently available.  Recommended for WWII fans!

DINING NOTE

Duval’s on Main Street in downtown Sarasota reliably delivers fresh fish and nicely prepared meals.  We had lunch here earlier this week with graduate school friends visiting from Michigan.  Service is friendly and efficient and the food very good.  Our group enjoyed superior clam chowder, a twisted ahi tuna sandwich, salads, and a shrimp po’ boy.  

Tidy Tidbits: Mixed Bag Viewing

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This blog brings a round-up of two recent films (Oscar contenders), the latest season of a French crime series, and an outstanding production of a theater classic.

CHILLING AMERICAN HISTORY

Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple TV, $ Prime Video & others)

Mollie, King, Ernest (apple.com)

This is a very long film, more than three hours, so we watched it over two nights.  It begins slowly as young Ernest Burkhart arrives in Osage County, Oklahoma to “work” for his uncle William Hale, known locally as King.  As a paid driver, Ernest squires around people like Mollie, a young attractive Osage woman, heir to oil rich land.  Encouraged by his uncle and his own interest in her, Ernest marries Mollie.  While King is outwardly benevolent toward the Osage community, he is slyly buying up and acquiring the rich oil headrights.  He doesn’t hesitate to hire hit men to murder business associates or natives or to pressure Ernest to handle the orders.

King is a smiling devil, smooth and suave while dim Ernest loves Mollie, but loves money more. Ernest isn’t smart enough to catch on to what he’s being asked, then ordered, to do.  Seemingly unaware of Ernest’s treachery, Mollie struggles to save her community.  Based on true events, the film reveals the horror of these white men’s actions toward the Osage slowly until finally the nascent FBI steps in to investigate more fully.  

The performances by Lily Gladstone as Mollie, Robert DeNiro as King, and Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest are all Oscar worthy.

IN THE PINK

Barbie ($ Prime Video et al)

Ken & Barbie (nyt.com)

As you might expect, everything in Barbie Land revolves around the color pink.  Bubble gum pink.  Doll Barbie is in control and her compatriots are everywhere. Each girl is empowered to be active and productive.  Ken is docile and along for the ride.  When Barbie and Ken leave Barbie Land for the real world of humans, they are both in for a shock.  Here, men run things, and women and girls are definitely lesser.  

I liked some of the spirit of the film and the theme of female empowerment, but I found it all a bit much, cluttered and too long, with a story line that was only okay.  Given its popularity at the box office, I thought I ought to see it. Verdict: colorful and sometimes cute, but not memorable.

FRIENDSHIP & CRIMES

Astrid Season 3 (Prime Video)

Raphaelle & Astrid (Plex)

High-functioning autistic Astrid Nielsen works for the Paris police in their archives.  With her razor-sharp observational skills and her encyclopedic knowledge of previous cases, she assists inspector Raphaelle Coste in solving complex and often exotic crimes.  While the premises of some crimes strain credulity, the real meat of this series is the burgeoning friendship between Astrid and Raphaelle and Astrid’s growing comfort in a platonic-verging-on-romantic relationship with Tetsuo.  

Along the way, Astrid works to become more socially comfortable and gains new knowledge about her late father’s last activities.  I’ve enjoyed every season of this series, but this one is even more wonderful.  Highly recommended!

TIMELY THEATER

Inherit the Wind (Asolo Repertory Theatre)

Rachel, Drummond, Judge, Brady, Rev. Brown (yourobserver.com)

Asolo Theatre has a new artistic director from Minneapolis, Peter Rothstein, and this is his first production in his new role.  It is superb, soaring high.  Written in 1955 and loosely based on the Scopes Trial of 1925, Inherit the Wind deals with the teaching of evolution in a small public school in the south.  Much of the action is set in and around the courtroom with the accused young teacher’s fate played out in a battle of wits between the attorneys.

Prosecuting attorney Brady is modeled on politician and presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, while Drummond, the defendant’s attorney is a Clarence Darrow clone.  Add in preaching from local fire and brimstone Reverend Brown and the ambivalence of his more nuanced daughter Rachel, friend of the accused, and you have other perspectives.  

While initially, the play looks like a contest between religion on one side and science on the other, it’s more complicated than that.  Both lawyers are extremely strong and present in their arguments, but underneath there is humanity and fellow feeling between them. Neither man is one-dimensional.

Staging and casting are excellent.  Given his fondness for musical theatre, Rothstein’s incorporation of several hymns sung by the community as punctuation points in the action is highly effective. Definitely worth seeing!   Inherit the Wind runs through February 24th.  

Note: Header photo is from Astrid, season 3, courtesy of World of Television.