Category: Theater

Carolina Comments: Fiction & Theater

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RENEWAL

Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover or neither, spring is a time of renewal and hope.  Here in North Carolina, we are deep into spring.  The azalea bushes are bending under the weight of white, pink, and red blossoms; royal purple, butter yellow, and pale pink irises stand upright in garden beds; and the trees, seemingly overnight, have fully leafed out to lush green.  

With all that’s going wrong and awry in the world, I take pleasure and comfort in nature’s bounty of beauty.  Such beauty provides a respite and a bit of a release of tension.  May you also experience the glorious colors of spring!

READING

LOST IN THE MAINE WOODS

Heartwood by Amity Gaige

Author Gaige (theguardian.com)

In Heartwood, Nurse Valerie Gillis, 42, sets out to walk the Appalachian Trail to get her heart straight and to escape from too much death (think Covid.) She is afraid of the dark and gets lost after her new hiking friend Santo leaves the trail.  Her husband, Gregory, about whom she has mixed feelings, has been her support, meeting her at specific places with more food and supplies.

Lt. Bev, a Maine game warden, is the individual responsible for coordinating the search for Valerie.  She is experienced with an excellent track record for finding people.  Lena is a 76-year-old resident of Cedar-field, a CCRC in Connecticut, who spends hours online and misses Christine, her estranged daughter. Valerie reminds her of Christine.

The novel alternates between the perspectives of Bev, Lena, Santo, and Valerie.  Although lost, Valerie writes affectionate letters to her mother recalling the love she received in childhood and detailing her current situation.   Like Lena missing her daughter, Lt. Bev has complex issues with her own mother who is slowly dying. 

This is an intriguing and highly creative novel combining the strong presence of the natural world (woods and birds) with both the fragility and strength of human relationships.  Mothers play a key role here, but there is also sibling rivalry and affection. Keeping the reader on tenterhooks is the underlying suspense of the search.  Will Valerie be found alive or not? Highly recommended!

Amity Gaige is the author of four novels and teaches at Yale University.  Several years ago, I read and enjoyed Sea Wife, a New York Times Notable Book of 2020. (~JWFarrington)

FOOTNOTE

For those who might be interested in other books featuring game wardens, try the mystery series by Paul Doiron.  Doiron, a former editor of Down East magazine, is the author of fifteen thrillers featuring Maine game warden Mike Bowditch.  The first, published in 2010 is The Poacher’s Son, and the most recent (2024) is Pitch Dark.

INTIMATE THEATER

Stop Kiss (Justice Theater Project, Raleigh)

Callie & Sara (justicetheaterproject.com)

Until recently, I firmly believed society had made significant progress in its treatment and acceptance of the LBGTQ community.  So much of that is being challenged now by this administration.

Stop Kiss, a play by Diana Son, was written in 1998 and first presented Off-Broadway.  The principals in this cast of five are Callie, a long-time New Yorker and traffic reporter, and Sara, a schoolteacher new to the city seeking life and adventure.  George, Callie’s former boyfriend, is a regular attendee in her life, one with occasional benefits.  Callie and Sara move slowly and tentatively into a relationship until a tragic attack.  

The play is fast paced and performed with no intermission.  Scenes are very short, only a few minutes of dialogue, followed by darkness and yet another set change. Some characters appear on floor level at the right or left with the stage behind.  One knows there has been an awful event, but not the particulars. The action moves from the past to the present and back again.  The suspense is in wondering what came after the attack or, what is the fate of Callie and Sara’s relationship.

I surmise that this play likely packed more of a punch and was perhaps shocking when it was performed in 1998.  I found it somewhat dated, but probably the message is still relevant and one that needs to be delivered again and again.  

Note: Unattributed photos and header photo ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) 

Carolina Comments: Race & Grief

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This week’s post includes a play about race that is compelling and uncomfortable and a beautiful memoir on delayed grief. The drama is the Pulitzer Prize winner, Fairview, and the book is Memorial Days.

CHALLENGING THEATER 

Fairview (Justice Theater Project)

The Justice Theater Project, a small drama company, presents plays about social issues at Umstead United Methodist Church in Raleigh.  Sets and lighting are simple, and the theater space is small with a limited number of seats.  Last year, the Chief Penguin and I went to see their production of Cabaret.

Set in the present day in an unspecified location, Fairview is about a middle-class Black family.  Beverly and her husband Dayton and their teenage daughter Keisha are preparing a special dinner to celebrate Beverly’s mother’s birthday.  Jasmine, Beverly’s sister, is an early-arriving guest.  These four banter and bicker back and forth over the preparations.  Later, Beverly’s brother Tyrone and Keisha’s friend Erica erupt on the scene joining them and Mama, the grandmother.  

The first act is short but could have been shorter.  The second act is long, and half of it is dominated by a radio discussion about race and which race one might choose to be.  From a reasonably ordinary domestic scene, the play then transforms into a confrontation between all the characters now onstage and then the audience.  It is challenging and uncomfortable to watch and thought-provoking.  

Playwright Drury (theintervalny.com)

Written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, Fairview won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  Those of us who attended together were a bit discombobulated by the end.  We thought it could have been a tighter production and that the radio voice went on too long.  Still, it was a worthwhile experience.

DOCUMENTING GRIEF

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks

Brooks (vineyardgazette.com)

My first acquaintance with Geraldine Brooks was reading her nonfiction book, Nine Parts of Desire, which focused on Muslim women in the Middle East, and was published in 1994.  Before she was a novelist, Brooks was a foreign correspondent living and working abroad for the Wall Street Journal. That book was a fascinating account which I really enjoyed.

Only later when I read her early novel about the bubonic plague. Year of Wonders, did I connect back and realize that Geraldine Brooks was the author of both titles.  Since then, I’ve read and relished almost every one of her historical novels including March (2005), Caleb’s Crossing (2011), and the most recent one, Horse (2022).

Brooks was married to fellow writer and journalist, Tony Horowitz, author of Spying on the South.  His sudden death on Memorial Day 2019, while far away on a book tour, was a searing event.  Being in the middle of writing Horse, Brooks did not take time to grieve.  Memorial Days is her interleaved account of the day of Tony’s death and those following and her prolonged stay three years later on an island off her native Australia.  

Being alone, isolated in nature, she granted herself a pause from work and her usual routine.  She walked the beach, swam, grieved, and reflected: on their happy marriage, on the joys of their parallel careers, on her sadness, and on how her life would have been different had she not met Tony, but lived her entire life in Australia.  It’s a beautiful and poignant memoir, straightforward and almost understated in its approach.  Highly recommended for Brooks’ fans! (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header image is Pledge Allegiance: Memorial to John R. Lewis by Jo-Ann Morgan.

Manhattan: Food, Art, & Drama

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SPLURGE-WORTHY DINING

The Modern

In a delayed celebration of our anniversary, we dined at The Modern, the restaurant next to the Museum of Modern Art.  With a table by the window, we looked out at MoMA’s sculpture garden and December’s bare trees. Lunch was a three-course prix fixe. Everything was beautifully plated and delicious.  I opted for the cold lobster salad with citrus and burrata followed by sea bass with some agnolotti and then a cheese course. 

Lobster salad
Roast chicken & sweet potato cake

The Chief Penguin had hamachi over basil to start and then roast chicken on a sweet potato cake followed an elegant lime parfait.  Service was impeccable, and we enjoyed chatting with our young waitress.  This is a wonderful venue for special occasions!

MATISSE AND MORE

Hanging Out at MoMA

The other morning, we walked down to W. 53rd Street and spent a most pleasant hour exploring several exhibits.  We headed first to the 3rd floor for a look at Matisse’s Cut-Outs: A Celebration, works from late in his career.  These paper cutouts are amazing.  His paper “stained glass” window, Christmas Eve (Nuit de Noel) has vibrant colors, but the glass version he had crafted is most impressive and so luminous. 

Christmas Eve, Matisse, in glass

Also of note are the figures he did for his swimming pool.  Rather than add a swimming pool to his home, he created blue leggy figures and adhered them to a band of paper around the perimeter of his dining room.  The overall effect was feeling like being in the water.

The Swimming Pool, Matisse, 1962
Rothko, No. 16, 1958 (Black, Red, Brown)

Leaving Matisse behind, we looked at some works from the permanent collection from around the world.  I was struck by the muted intensity of Mark Rothko’s No. 16 (Red, Brown, and Black) and by the mysterious figures underlying Blue Composition, c.1966-68, by Ethiopian artist Alexander “Skunder” Boghossian.  There appears to be both a horse and the snout of an alligator or crocodile. 

Detail, Blue Composition
Detail, No Shade but His Shade

And No Shade but His Shade by Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi is a compelling work all in browns including a man’s head with a bird perched on his scalp.

LIVE DRAMA

Left on Tenth (James Earl Jones Theatre)

I read Delia Ephron’s memoir, Left on Tenth, when it came out and was pleased when I saw that she was writing a script and working with Good Wife TV star Julianna Margulies.  The Chief Penguin and I went to the play and enjoyed it immensely.  The cast is small, just four people; Margulies and Peter Gallagher as the leads, two others who play cameo parts, and two dogs.  It is a story of newfound love, but it’s also about serious illness, specifically leukemia.  (A variety of that same disease took the life of Delia’s sister Nora.)

While one might expect this to be a depressing drama, it is not.  Yes, there are sad and tense moments, but there is joy and lightness.  The staging consists of a simple set, minor costume changes, and creative lighting and projection to change the mood or the season.  Margulies carries the work, projecting a full range of emotions, while Peter Francis James in brief roles as a friend, a gruff doctor, and a waiter adds a bit of humor and dance. 

Note: All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Header photo of trees for sale along 3rd Avenue.

Carolina Comments: Novel, Play & Dinner

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In this post, I share my thoughts on Elizabeth Strout’s latest Maine novel, report on seeing a powerful and timely play, and share a tidbit about dinner at a very local eatery.

MAINE LIVES

Author Strout (spectator.co.uk)

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

Sharing individual’s stories and lives through the seasons, Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, Tell Me Everything, returns to Crosby, Maine, and a cast of familiar characters.  Olive Kittredge is now 90 and still crochety and direct, while novelist Lucy Barton is her friend and recipient of Olive’s tales.   Lucy lives with her ex-husband, William, but meets Bob Burgess regularly for long walks and talks.  

Attorney Bob still does some legal work and is married to his second wife, Margaret, pastor at the local church.  When Matt Beach’s mother, a former teacher and the butt of her students’ cutting humor, is murdered, Matt is the primary suspect. Bob Burgess takes the case and slowly unravels that family’s history and relationships.

While Olive, Lucy, and Bob are the central figures, their spouses, families, and friends are integral to the various stories being shared.  It’s a peek into smalltown life and a depiction of regret, grief, and love that almost everyone experiences to some degree.  

“Oh” seems to be Strout’s favorite word as it’s regularly voiced, “Oh, Bob, “oh, Lucy,” anytime someone is subdued, hurting, or unsure.  Despite its overuse, I still found things to like about this novel.  It isn’t my favorite Strout book but engaging enough to keep me reading.  (~JWFarrington)

THOUGHT-PROVOKING DRAMA

What the Constitution Means to Me (Playmakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill)

Julie Gibson as Heidi (playmakersrep.org)

Heidi Schreck’s play, What the Constitution Means to Me, is a powerful piece of drama.  One might think, given its very relevant content, that it was just created.  In fact, it was first presented on Broadway in 2019 and was nominated for two Tony Awards.  It had runs across the country and was named Best Play of the Year by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other publications.

Two characters dominate the first two-thirds of the play set in 1998, Heidi recreating her 15-year-old self and the Legionnaire who is MC of a contest about the U.S. Constitution.  What starts out as some factual questions on the specific sections of the document quickly devolves into Heidi’s reflections on the rights that are or are not granted to women, Blacks, and others.  She shifts into the present and digresses on the lives of her mother and her grandmother and their experiences of abusive men.  She then shares some of her own life choices.  

Later, both characters transition to the present, and there is a live debate between actress Julie Gibson and high school senior Amari Bullett.  The audience is encouraged to react to what’s being said, and one person is chosen to be the deciding judge. 

We found the opening 15 minutes setting up the contest to be drawn out and verging on tedious.  However, once Heidi got immersed in her family and how individuals’ rights are limited, we were fully engaged.  Playmakers is based at UNC, and performances run through November 3rd.  Well worth seeing!!

DINING OUT

Istanbul Restaurant & Cafe, Cary

Chicken shish kebab

Istanbul is literally right outside our door, and we had been meaning to try it.  We went for an early dinner and were very pleased.  I ordered the chicken shish kebab which came with bulghur and a mixed salad.  The Chief Penguin had the adana kebab (chopped lamb and beef with spices) which also was accompanied by bulghur and salad.  The portions were generous and tasty.  

We were tempted by the fried calamari but will try that appetizer on another visit.  While Istanbul does not have a liquor license, they were happy to provide glasses for wine.  Open for lunch and dinner and takeout seven days of the week.  Recommended! 

Note: All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)