Category: Theater

Tidy Tidbits: Books & Culture

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WHAT I’M READING NOW

I have two books going currently.  One is a book of essays by Janet Malcolm, a staff writer for The New Yorker, called Nobody’s Looking at You.  The other is Kate Atkinson’s latest novel, Transcription.  Several years ago I read her Life After Life which was excellent. 

Our island book group will be discussing Atkinson’s new novel shortly, and I’m really enjoying it.  Juliet, the main character who has been recruited to work for MI5 in 1940s London, is a delightful mix of innocence and wry humor.  Her job is to transcribe conversations being held by a group of fifth columnists.  We see her again in 1950 when she has a somewhat tedious job working on children’s programming for the BBC, but gets the sense that her past is re-visiting her.  I guess I’ll find out if it is or if she is imagining it.

Malcolm’s essays, often based on interviews, are easy and flowing and come across as simply put together. She is an excellent crafter of casual transitions which make the reader feel as if no work was involved.  Based on reading “Three Sisters,” I must visit the Argosy Bookshop, and “The Storyteller,” an extended piece about Rachel Maddow, helped me appreciate her reputation, even though I’ve never watched her TV show.  I have several more essays yet to read and when done will feel that I’ve spent time with this great storyteller. (~JWFarrington)

CULTURAL SCENE

I have always admired Caroline Kennedy.  She has escaped some of the foibles and missteps of others of the Kennedy family and has kept her life as private as possible for someone with her name.  Kennedy was the featured guest this week at the Town Hall lecture series, and I enjoyed her presentation. 

 She is not a particularly polished public speaker, but she came across with warmth and genuineness.  Her stories of being a child in the White House and her father’s reaching out to the Japanese captain responsible for the damage and death on the PT-109 were heartfelt.  As the U.S. ambassador to Japan, she was warmly welcomed there both because of her father and for being the daughter of a Pacific War veteran.  Most of us didn’t realize how delicate and fraught with tension President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima was.  

Aside from her family recollections, Kennedy’s message was about reconciliation and history and reaching across generational divides. She claimed that her grandmother, Rose Kennedy, was hands down the best politician in the family.  Overall, her talk was a soothing balm counteracting today’s rough political waters.  

Arthur Miller wrote his play, The Crucible,during the McCarthy era.  But, as numerous critics have stated, it seems relevant in whatever time period it is staged.  The Asolo Theater has done its usual superb job presenting this dark and tortuous piece of theater.  The set is dimly lit and stark with austere wooden tables and benches.  How young girls dancing in the woods get labeled as witches and how this spreads to accusations against other upstanding wives and mothers is both chilling and a strong reminder how “fake news” can too quickly become viewed as truth. Definitely a play for our time too.

Peggy Roeder as Rebecca Nurse (Asolo Rep)

Note: Atkinson photo from the Irish Times; Malcolm photo from the New York Times.

Tidy Tidbits: Culture Notes

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MORE BESTS

As I indicated last week, the newspaper world is full of bests.  Even our local paper, Herald Tribune, offered up a selection of the best books of the year.  And the New York Times  seems to have gone overboard with each of its distinctive sections having its own, “The Best of 2018” edition.  On Sunday, “Arts & Leisure” had numerous articles including best classical music, best pop music, best television programs, best streamed television, best movies, best art exhibits and so on.  This week the Wednesday “Food” section had its own best of the year features:  best restaurants, “The Top Cheap Eats, Dish by Dish,” a listing of twelve remarkable wines, and the recipes that were the favorites of readers.  I liked the Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies and the Beef and Broccoli stir fry.  Something here for every taste and palate! 

FABULOUS THEATER!

Asolo Repertory Theater always delivers and they did it again this week with energy and style. Their production of The Music Man was a tap dance lovers’ bonanza with frenetic footwork, lively music, and some lovely singing, particularly by Britney Coleman as Marian the Librarian.  Noah Racey who plays Professor Harold Hill is a choreographer as well as actor and it showed; his professor was perhaps less brash than Robert Preston’s in the original movie, but still winning.  And Marion came across as a more rounded character, less innocent sweet maiden and more complex woman with dreams and determination.  

I would have said that The Music Man was lower down on my list of favorite musicals, but I enjoyed every minute of this production.  There are still more performances between now and Dec. 29.

SMALL SCREEN

Silk (Amazon Prime)

Thanks to my friend Patricia for this recommendation.  Martha Costello is one of a group of lawyers in a British firm plugging away defending clients in court cases and vying to become “Silk” or QC, that is Queen’s Counsel. Single and singleminded, she is hard driving, while her colleague Clive Reader, from a posh background, appears less dedicated and always with an eye for the female solicitors.  Lording it over all of the office is Billy Lamb, the senior clerk, who makes case assignments and minds the books, or perhaps cooks them. I’m now into Season 2 of this BBC production and enjoying it immensely as it keeps me going on the treadmill! 

Homecoming (Amazon Prime)

This original series from Amazon has gotten a lot of praise from the press and at least one award nomination for its star, Julia Roberts.  The setting is a facility that runs a residential program for returning vets who have been diagnosed with PTSD or other issues.   Roberts plays Heidi Bergman, a counselor there.  Each episode is only thirty minutes long, and I can see why.  Much of each episode focuses on her sessions with one or more of the residents, with occasional leaps forward to the present day when we see Heidi working as a waitress at a cheap joint.  

What happened to make her leave the Geist program and why did one of her clients leave at the same time?   We have now watched five episodes and while it’s well done, it’s also somewhat weird.  

MOVIE TIME

Puzzle

We missed Puzzle when it was in theaters and so decided to pay the nominal rental fee of $4.99 to watch it here at home.  Starring Kelly Macdonald, it’s a measured, deliberate film about Agnes, a married mother of two grown sons, who has little self esteem and no satisfying function in life other than serving at the beck and call of husband Louie and those sons.  They show little appreciation for her efforts on their behalf and can’t understand why she might want more in her life.  Until she receives a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle for her birthday and discovers she’s good at it!  

Thus begins Agnes’, aka Martha’s, tentative steps toward independence, as she gains a male puzzle partner (Irrfan Khan) and ventures regularly beyond the confines of her own home and town.  I liked this film a lot, although some might find the pacing slow.

Manhattan Diversions: Movies, Art, etc.

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RECENT FILMS
Free Solo
This is a breathtaking and stunning National Geographic documentary about free soloing on Yosemite’s El Capitan. That is, climbing its 3,000 foot rock wall without any ropes. The first person to ever do that was Alex Hannold in June 2017, and this is the story and the backstory of that historic climb. What makes this such a fascinating film is that you learn a lot about Alex as a person and what drives him and why, as much as he can articulate it, he feels compelled to undertake such a risky climb.

The film crew, several other professional climbers, and his girlfriend Sanni, are also prominently featured. I found the fears of the film crew on his behalf and Sanni’s candor about their relationship and her concerns about how Alex communicates emotion added a richness and intimacy to the film. Highly recommend it!

A Star is Born
This is the fourth version or re-make of this film, this time starring Bradley Cooper who also directs it, and Lady Gaga. I’ve heard Lady Gaga sing a few times, but it was a new and amazing experience to see her develop in this part. The movie has lots of loud music and is as much a concert at times as it is a drama. Cooper stars as Jackson Maine, a popular singer on his way down, and Lady Gaga as Ally, the ingenue he discovers whose career quickly outstrips his.

I thought the film was a bit long and slow in parts, but appreciated that although Jackson lets her down repeatedly, Ally is never mean or nasty, but basically loving, not a side of celebrities that movies always depict. Go and you may leave humming the tune to “Shallow.”

EXHIBIT NOTES
Dorothea Lange’s America at Reynolda House Museum of American art
In North Carolina, this small gallery photography exhibit consists of a number of Lange’s portraits and scenes depicting poverty and hardship during the 1920’s and 30’s. Also included are photos by Walker Evans and others from the same period. What made the exhibit more meaningful for me were the longer explanations of context and setting on some of the labels. If you to to Winston-Salem, you can also tour the Reynolds home (he, the tobacco baron) and the attractive gardens on the property.

Delacroix at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The 18th century French painter, Eugene Delacroix, was a master draftsman. This small exhibit focuses on a variety of sketches and drawings he did in preparation for larger paintings. Several small watercolors are also included.

Chagall, Lissitzky, Malevich:  The Russian Avant-Garde in Vitebsk, 1918-1922 at the Jewish Museum

This featured exhibit covers a short period in Russian art after the overthrow of the czar when Chagall and others founded an art school.  The dominant art movement was Suprematism, founded by Malevich, which used basic geometric shapes and a limited color palette in both painting and architecture.  Chagall soon drifted away from strict adherence to it.

FABULOUS PLAY!


Most everyone has seen one version or another of My Fair Lady and probably one of the film versions which has a happy ending, not part of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion.  This new production at Lincoln Center is truly a My Fair Lady for our time. Lauren Ambrose is luminescent as Eliza Doolittle, who starts out as a lonely flower seller, but comes into her own as a woman by taking up Professor Higgins’ offer to pass her off as a lady.
The stage sets are amazing with a pointed contrast between Higgins’ elaborately designed house and the often bare stage on which Eliza sings or cavorts. Choreography is exuberant, occasionally to the point of boisterousness, as in Alfred Doolittle’s rousing rendition of “Get Me to the Church on Time,” complete with dancers in drag. Silver and lilac costumes in the Ascot scene are sumptuous and cooly elegant. All the songs and the singing are wonderful—both Eliza’s and the professor’s.

What might surprise you is how this production ends, but I won’t tell, except that it’s the right ending for today. Our performance featured a number of understudies including Tony Roach as Higgins and Joe Hart as Alfred Doolittle, and they were so good, I probably wouldn’t have known they weren’t the usual leads. If you have the chance, see it!

Note:  Header photo is of Delacroix’s A Moroccan Couple on Their Terrace, 1832.  Photos by JWFarrington.

Tidy Tidbits: On Stage, Screen & Page

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ON STAGE—Always…Patsy Cline

Florida Studio Theatre’s production of Always…Patsy Cline was a wonderful immersion in Cline’s most famous hits.  This is a play, rather than a cabaret performance, although Patsy is mostly just singing.  The context and glue are provided by the connection and friendship that developed between Houston fan Louise Seger and Cline.   I expected the role of Louise to be a minor one; instead Susan Greenhill as Louise is superb—funny, mouthy, caustic, and oh, so spirited!

Jones & Greenhill from broadwayworld.com

 

Meredith Jones, as Patsy, appears in almost as many different dresses and outfits, all perfect for the early 1960’s, as there are songs, and captures the aching quality of Cline’s voice.  One of my favorite songs being “Crazy.”  The show was so popular with local audiences it frequently sold out and was then extended by a week.

 

 

ON TV—Janet King (Acorn)

Cast from dailytelegraph.com.au

If you liked Marta Dusseldorp in A Place to Call Home, chances are you’ll find her equally fascinating and complex as the star of Janet King.  Based in Sydney, Janet King is a crown prosecutor and later head of a royal commission investigating gun violence.  She is smart, controlled and controlling and stubborn.  Her home life has its own set of potential challenges with a lesbian partner and two small children.  Her office colleagues are well developed characters complete with their own issues, both political and personal.  This legal drama is full of surprises and twists, some violence, and is occasionally dark, but always compelling.  There are three seasons.

 

ON PAPER—Asymmetry

Halliday by Sophia Evans for the Observer

#6  Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday is one of the more unusual novels I’ve read recently, but also one of the most delightful.  The first section, “Folly” is about the love affair between 25-year old editor Alice and the decades older successful novelist, Ezra Blazer (modeled after the author’s real affair with Philip Roth, say the critics).  There is tenderness, humor, and discussions of literature and aging as he molds and manages her.  His phone calls always arrive, CALLER ID BLOCKED.

In the second section, “Madness,” also aptly titled, is the story of newly minted PhD Amar from Los Angeles who is trying to get to Iraq to visit his brother.  He is detained at Heathrow Airport and denied entry to the UK; while there he reviews his own life and his extended family’s checkered history and reflects on both American and international politics, all the while annoyed at this delay, but not overtly angry.  Lastly, the extended interview with Ezra Blazer fills in more of his life and loves as well as his thoughts on the role of art and literature.  All three sections take place in different years.  Blazer’s coda links back to “Folly,” but Amar’s section is more discrete.  (~JWFarrington)