After the 75 minutes spent at the small, focused exhibits at the ICA, the 140 minutes spent at the BFA's sprawling exhibits were dizzying. For no predetermined reason, I decided to just take the galleries as they came and enjoy each object d'art. Not a bad strategy for becoming absorbed by the art rather than the other way.
I particularly enjoyed the Sargent room.
Recommend.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Friday, July 22, 2011
New England Aquarium
These things are much better now that we don't have young children in tow.
Recommend.
Recommend.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Rose Mark'd Queen (adapted by Devin Brain)
War of the Roses, with a particular focus on Margaret of Anjou and with lines taken from Shakespeare's Henry V, Henry VI (parts 1, 2, & 3), and Richard III. Interesting setting of a children's nursery, thereby transforming the characters into children fighting over a sandbox. Could use some tightening up. Very strong acting.
Recommend.
Recommend.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Illusion (Tony Kushner from Pierre Corneille's L'Illusion Comique)
One of Kushner's early works, this adaptation of the 17-century orignal play combines romance and tragedy with a heavy strain of magic in order to explore the boundaries between the real and the illusory. Set in the cave of a magician, it opens with Pridamant searching for the sorceress in order to obtain her help to locate his son, whom he had banished from his household 15 years prior for being too caught up on his fancies. In answer to Pridamant's request, she presents him with 3 scenes, each featuring his son. In each illusion, his son has a different name, and each time the son is seen working through the travails of being a penniless man and of love. By the 3rd scene, the son is revealed to be a cad, just in time to be killed by his lovers' husband. As Pridamant bewails his loss, Aleandre the magician reveals that indeed they have been watching the son's life, but with this catch: the son is a working actor in Paris , and the three illusions were all scenes fr plays on which he acted. Rather than being dead, he was indeed alive and working in Paris.
This embedded explanation doesn't filly account for everything the audience had observed. Consequently, we are given (at least) three ways to understand what we have seen.
First, we accept the initial narrative that a magician is allowing Pridamant to view retrospectively the past 15 years of his son's life. Second, we believe the magician's last minute story: the son is an actor, and we've been watching his performances. Three, that all three scenes have been performances that have nothing to do with the son; the magician has simply provided some theatrical scenes to fulfill the father's wish and to take his coins. He has been duped, as has the audience. Clues to the third possibility: the magician's servant moves back and forth between the two settings; one of the scenes' characters returns to the cave; father cannot remember the son's name, so how do we believe that he recognizes his face; and, most poignantly, the magician mentions that the roads were muddy enough that spring to keep anyone from traveling to Paris. That is, the magician's ruse worked because she was certain the father's curiosity had been satisfied and he would not make the effort to reunite with his son.
In the end, the play explores how we desire to reclaim what is lost--and how much we will fool ourselves into believing we can.
Highly recommend.
This embedded explanation doesn't filly account for everything the audience had observed. Consequently, we are given (at least) three ways to understand what we have seen.
First, we accept the initial narrative that a magician is allowing Pridamant to view retrospectively the past 15 years of his son's life. Second, we believe the magician's last minute story: the son is an actor, and we've been watching his performances. Three, that all three scenes have been performances that have nothing to do with the son; the magician has simply provided some theatrical scenes to fulfill the father's wish and to take his coins. He has been duped, as has the audience. Clues to the third possibility: the magician's servant moves back and forth between the two settings; one of the scenes' characters returns to the cave; father cannot remember the son's name, so how do we believe that he recognizes his face; and, most poignantly, the magician mentions that the roads were muddy enough that spring to keep anyone from traveling to Paris. That is, the magician's ruse worked because she was certain the father's curiosity had been satisfied and he would not make the effort to reunite with his son.
In the end, the play explores how we desire to reclaim what is lost--and how much we will fool ourselves into believing we can.
Highly recommend.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Race (David Mamet)
A timely, hard-hitting examination of race and sexual relations--and the legal and cultural ramifications of breaking the taboos. Though the title and the characters want to distract us into thinking the play's focus is race, it is as much, if not more, about gender relations: the two male lawyers refer to Susan, the third lawyer, as "the girl" whenever she is out of the room.
Despite some weak or unclear plotting, this is probably the best Mamet play I've seen, and the tight, terse production does it justice.
Highly recommend.
Despite some weak or unclear plotting, this is probably the best Mamet play I've seen, and the tight, terse production does it justice.
Highly recommend.
Friday, July 8, 2011
The Mount, Lenox, Massachusetts
Thunderstorms and downpours kept us from exploring the gardens; nevertheless, we enjoyed seeing the partially restored home of Edith Wharton.
Recommend.
Recommend.
Arrowhead, Pittsfield, Massachusetts
Not exactly a performance--unless we count the tour guide's speedy recitation of Melville facts and trivia--but worth noting. A timely reminder to return to Melville this summer.
Recommend.
Recommend.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Mark O'Connor String Quartet
Mark O'Connor, violin
Kelly Hall-Tompkins, violin
Gillian Gallagher, viola
Patrice Jackson, cello
O'Connor, String Quartet No 2 "Bluegrass" (2005)
--, String Quartet No 3 "Old-Time" (2008)
After three duets based on Americana music, the first half concluded with the String Quartet No 2. The introductory duets filled our ears with the rhythms and sonorities of native music and prepared is for the more complex combinations of the longer work. Though filled with some gorgeous moments, it did not make its structure readily apparent in the first listening. Despite the virtuosic performances, I was less than awed.
The second half of the program began with a 7-minute free improvisation by O'Connor that provided more clues about the quartet from the first half. Quartet #3, however, seemed to leave the improvisory mode behind with four highly structured movements that allowed the cello to provide the necessary bones. The second movement was my favorite. It was highly reminiscent of "Moondog," a sumptuous piece on the Kronos Quartet's Ancient Music album.
Encore: Appalachian Waltz, very lovely
Recommend with caveats.
Kelly Hall-Tompkins, violin
Gillian Gallagher, viola
Patrice Jackson, cello
O'Connor, String Quartet No 2 "Bluegrass" (2005)
--, String Quartet No 3 "Old-Time" (2008)
After three duets based on Americana music, the first half concluded with the String Quartet No 2. The introductory duets filled our ears with the rhythms and sonorities of native music and prepared is for the more complex combinations of the longer work. Though filled with some gorgeous moments, it did not make its structure readily apparent in the first listening. Despite the virtuosic performances, I was less than awed.
The second half of the program began with a 7-minute free improvisation by O'Connor that provided more clues about the quartet from the first half. Quartet #3, however, seemed to leave the improvisory mode behind with four highly structured movements that allowed the cello to provide the necessary bones. The second movement was my favorite. It was highly reminiscent of "Moondog," a sumptuous piece on the Kronos Quartet's Ancient Music album.
Encore: Appalachian Waltz, very lovely
Recommend with caveats.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Three Hotels (Jon Robin Baitz)
Sharp production of an interesting play concerning the corrosive effects that corporate misdeeds in the third world have on citizens of those nations as well as on the members of the corporate executives' families.
Recommend.
Recommend.
Clark Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
The more heavily promoted exhibit, Pisarro's People, was certainly interesting; I learned a great deal about Camille Pissaro's family, friends, and politics. And I was delighted to see my dear friend, John Singer Sargent's stunning work in white. The great surprise and delight was seeing the features photo exhibit.
The image if you click on this blog entry's title, a photo taken by Thomas Struth in 1992, does no justice to the original 8'x12' I saw hanging at the top of a Clark Institute (Williamstown MA) stairway. Something about coming to it from below compressed the image and blurred even more the distinction between the people in the gallery and those in the painting. The collapse of space and time was startling, even pleasurable, without being disrespectful to the present of the visitors, the past of the painting, or the distant past of the image depicted in the painting.
Highly recommend.
The image if you click on this blog entry's title, a photo taken by Thomas Struth in 1992, does no justice to the original 8'x12' I saw hanging at the top of a Clark Institute (Williamstown MA) stairway. Something about coming to it from below compressed the image and blurred even more the distinction between the people in the gallery and those in the painting. The collapse of space and time was startling, even pleasurable, without being disrespectful to the present of the visitors, the past of the painting, or the distant past of the image depicted in the painting.
Highly recommend.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
The Motherf**ker with the Hat (Stephen Alan Guirgis)
The unforgettable play with the unprintable name.
Though it makes use of the language of addiction and recovery, the play isn't really about either. Instead, it's about how we treat one another and ourselves, the codes of behavior we do and don't love by. It treats all of this with riotous, iconoclastic humor, and yet there's never a flippant moment.
Highly recommend.
Though it makes use of the language of addiction and recovery, the play isn't really about either. Instead, it's about how we treat one another and ourselves, the codes of behavior we do and don't love by. It treats all of this with riotous, iconoclastic humor, and yet there's never a flippant moment.
Highly recommend.
Jerusalem (Jez Butterworth)
This play is a virtuoso of language coming at the audience like the crowds on Times Square. Sometimes you cannot see the faces in the crowds, but you can be overwhelmed nonetheless. Mark Rylance's performance as Rooster Byron, a drug dealing pied piper of Wiltshire youth, is often difficult to fathom. His motivations are unclear and his self conception muddled, even delusional. I wasn't sure if he represented a lost English Arden or the general degradation of British middle-class culture. He certainly isn't a figure of hope, not even failed rebellion. Deserves to be read.
Recommend.
Recommend.
Friday, July 1, 2011
The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)
Malick's latest genre-bending film provides a lovely (if not novel in its conclusions) meditation on life and death and love and family. The setting, 1950-60s Texas, was meticulously invoked and provided a fit backdrop for childhood caught between the Lone Star state's demand for perfection from its offspring and Southern Protestant rhetoric of love in this life and assurance of reunion in the next.
The father's rigid yet contradictory parenting styles will be familiar to my children.
I can see why some are put off by its veering away from straight narrative and fInd offputting its visual and spoken meditations. I found it much better to give in to it.
Recommend.
The father's rigid yet contradictory parenting styles will be familiar to my children.
I can see why some are put off by its veering away from straight narrative and fInd offputting its visual and spoken meditations. I found it much better to give in to it.
Recommend.
The Trip
A tedious British travel flick with many, but not nearly enough, humorous sparks. JudgIng by the reactIons of the others in the audience, this film is an accurate generational litmus test.
Do not recommend to anyone over 45.
Do not recommend to anyone over 45.
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