A Human Being Died That Night (Nicholas Wright)

I admit that I was late coming to more than a passing interest in the anti-apartheid movement and the ANC, not really becoming aware of what was happening in South Africa until Nelson Mandela's release from prison in 1990.  In many ways, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) established later that decade should have included non-South Africans like me who, for whatever reason, failed to prevent human rights violations.  Because it dealt with a collective guilt that included my own, I found the TRC fascinating and therapeutic from afar.

Nicholas Wright based his play on a book by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, a psychologist who served on the TRC.  It spans several years of interviews she conducted with Eugene de Kock, known in the South African press as Prime Evil, while he served two life sentences plus 212 years in Pretoria Central Prison for crimes committed when he was head of a police unit charged with covertly countering terroism (aka ANC). 

As presented in the play, de Kock's imprisonment gave him a freedom to speak the truth that those who sought amnesty or forgiveness were unable to quite grasp.  Beyond regretting the atrocities committed by himself and under his leadership, he spoke of the guilt of others who never fully admitted the truth of their complicity.

Neither maudlin nor glib, the performances by Noma Dumezweni and Matthew Marsh are impeccable in their timing and subtle.

Must see, highly recommended.

The Caretaker (Harold Pinter)

 For a long while, I've loved the words "caretaker" and "caregiver" with their simultaneous invocations of both "taking care of/giving care to" and "taking/giving care." (For instance, when I returned to work after the birth of my second child, my advert didn't request a "babysitter"; instead, it requested a "caregiver," and I hired the first respondent who noticed that shift in wording.  It turned out to be an excellent strategy.)  Pinter draws upon these denotations as well as the connotations of a caretaker as someone relegated to minding that which needs to be minded but the rest of us don't want to fiddle with: buildings and grounds, the old and the infirm.

The Theatre Royal Both Productions/Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse production, directed by Christopher Morahan with Jonathan Pryce, Alan Cox, and Alex Hassell, drew on the black humor found in the pauses in the script and ambiguities of its language. Though some audience members found the humor misplaced (as revealed during the fascinating talkback with the actors), I found it to be an effective means for highlighting the despair.   

Like many, I find Pinter challenging, and I enjoy his plays more in retrospect than I do watching them.   Nevertheless, during this performance, I was held captive by the performances of all three actors and after the talkback wished for a chance to see a replay.

Highly recommended.

Isherwood's 5.6.12 NYTimes review

Being Shakespeare (Simon Callow)

Much better than I would have expected.

Recommend.

'Tis Pity She's a Whore (John Ford)

I've never read this Ford play from the late 1620s, so my impression of the production is based solely on the production.  That is, I didn't come to the performance with any notions of what the play was about or what I expected to see.

Cheek By Jowl modernized this production by setting it in the bedroom of a 16-year girl, complete with posters on the wall and clothing strewn about.  This girl, however, will be courted and eventually impregnated and murdered by her fawning older brother.

I found Lydia Wilson's performance as the Annabella who is pulled between her brother Giovanni (Jack Gordon), her maid Putana (Lizzie Hopley), and her (eventual) husband Vasques (Laurence Spellman) engaging and convincing. 

The production, however, tends to be too busy: do I really want to watch actors dance and/or sing for more than 12 seconds? And should I be expected to understand lines delivered while actors are jumping about to loud music? 

Recommend...highly, if only because this play deserves to be seen.

Krapp's Last Tape (Beckett)

John Hurt provided an engaging (that is, clear) performance of Beckett's quintessential curmudgeon overwhelmed by remorse and denial of that remorse. Excellent sound design aided the performance immensely. Recommend highly.

The Threepenny Opera (Kurt Weill, 1928)

 Directed by Robert Wilson and performed (in German) by the Berliner Ensemble (a descendent of the theatrical ensemble Brecht founded in 1949), this production of Weill's savage satire thrust the audience squarely into Weimar Germany. The design was impeccable and the performances were flawless. It merits seeing a 2nd time.

Highly Recommend. And again.

Atys (Lully)

To my mind, there is no musical ensemble responsible for more exquisite productions than William Christie's Les Arts Florissants. The ensemble has a head start by dedicating itself to Baroque music, but it maintains that lead by attending to every detail so that the whole is as close to perfect as possible.
This year, LAF and Opera Comique restaged their 1987 production of Lully's Atys.
The court of King Louis XIV birthed French opera in the middle of the 17th century, and the man most responsible for its development was Jean-Baptiste Lully, a musician and dancer from a working-class Florentine family. Under the king's oversight, Lully developed tragedies en musique incorporating highly stylized dance and costumes into the opera. Atys is one of his earliest productions, its subject matter chosen by the king.
The story of Atys comes from Ovid, as retold by Philippe Quinault.
Highly recommend.

King Lear

Much and rightly celebrate Donmar Warehouse production. Followed by Stephen Greenblatt's weak and weakly prepared talk.

Highly recommended.

Macbeth (Shakespeare)

Interesting Cheek by Jowl production with no props makes for effective murders and convincing insanity.
Great Lady McDuff scene.

Recommend.

John Gabriel Borkman (Henrik Ibsen)

Metamorphosis (from Franz Kafka)

I bought tickets to this production with great trepidation. I am not a fan of Kafka's novella, and I couldn't imagine how a production could hold my attention for more than 18 minutes. I'm very glad to report that my fears were unfounded.

The Icelandic group, Vesturport Theatre, inventively reimagined the narrative so that the narrative tension moves from Gregor's Samsa's thoughts to his family's engagement with him. Visually and musically stunning, as well.

Highly recommend. Really.

Raoul

An interesting performance piece at odds with itself. It opens by confronting the audience with a set design that must be interpreted as a shipwreck, the slow funereal music of Shubert's Piano Trio in Eb (opus 100), and a man crashing himself against the fixtures on stage. I found it immensely moving and sad, enough so that I cried for the first 10 minutes of the performance. And then I realized everyone else around me was laughing.
Raoul claims sanguinary descent from Charlie Chaplin. And in this performance, with the uncomfortable mix of comic and tragic, he can claim heritage in Chaplin's aesthetic.

The best part of the evening turned out to the be the part I was least looking forward to: the gala dinner following the performance. We sat at a table of strangers, all of whom were fascinating conversationalists.

Recommend.

Delusion (Laurie Anderson)

Disappointing. Recommend (because it's Laurie Anderson) with caveats

The Faerie Queen (Henry Purcell)

Exquisite productions of The Faerie Queen are no easy feat. Les Arts Florissants demonstrates just how rewarding the task can be in tonight's complex tapestry of drama, music, dance, costumes and sets. The whole production--all four hours (with intermission long enough to tune two harpsichords)--was enchanting and breathtaking. At the end, I could have easily set myself back down and watched it all over again.

And if the performance itself were not enough, Christie and company closed the curtain call by singing love lyrics to the audience and cascading red paper petals onto the audience. What a wonderful experience!

I don't know if I'll ever have an experience to match this one.

Highly recommend.

Baroque Cabaret

A selection of baroque love songs performed by a soprano, tenor, and bass in a cabaret setting. A wonderful way to drink a good bottle of wine with friends.

Highly recommended.

Actéon (Charpentier)

This Les Arts Florrisants production opens gloriously: the opening chorus is sung as the singers enter the sage from the auditorium's aisles. During those few minutes, we were surrounded by rich sound of baroque voices.

Highly recommended.

Dido and Aeneas (Purcell)

This was part of a marvelous Baroque triple-header performed by William Christie's Les Arts Florrissants at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Easily, Dido and Aeneas is my favorite Baroque opera, and most likely of any period. And LAF did ample justice to the work with superb vocal and instrumental performance, as well as an engaging staging. (I don't think, however, that anything will ever match LAF's stunning production of Rameau's Les Boreades.) Performances by Sonya Yoncheva (Dido), Andreas Wolf (Aeneas), and Emmanuelle de Negri (Belinda) were particularly sumptuous.

Highly recommend.

The Tempest (Shakespeare)

As You Like It (Shakespeare)

Bridges Project under Sam Mendes direction

Mark Morris Dance Group (BAM)

We almost let fatigue, tight schedules, and bad weather keep us home. I'm so glad we braved the chilly rain. The performance was enchanting and well worth grading exams down and back to Brooklyn.

The evening opened with "Behemoth," a dance without music, without sound, except the sound of the dancers' feet on the stage. By stripping dance bare of aural elements, the performance foregrounds how much we depend upon music to help us understand and interpret dance. Without the musical component, each moment felt independent of all those before and after. Ultimately, I found myself in awe of the dancers' ability to remain hold the performance together without any musical cues.

The next piece, "Looky," was much less somber, more playful. Though much later than "Hard Nut," I was repeatedly reminded of that parody. (I am very intrigued by Kyle Gann's "Studies for Disklavier.")

Finally, the world premier of "Socrates," set of Erik Satie's cantata, "Socrate," was spellbinding in its elegance and profundity.

Highly Recommended.