this week in literature

RemarkaBull PODVERSATIONS: CHUKWUDI IWUJI

Chukwudi Iwuji will discuss and perform from Henry VI on June 29

Who: Chukwudi Iwuji, Nathan Winkelstein
What: Live discussion of the title character, “a homely swain,” of Henry VI
Where: Red Bull Theater’s website, Vimeo, Facebook Live
When: Monday, June 29, free, 7:30
Why: Red Bull Theater’s RemarkaBULL Podversations streaming series continues June 29 with Shakespearean star and Olivier winner Chukwudi Iwuji discussing Henry VI with Red Bull associate producer Nathan Winkelstein; Iwuji will also perform a passage that includes: “Would I were dead! if God’s good will were so; / For what is in this world but grief and woe? / O God! methinks it were a happy life, / To be no better than a homely swain; / To sit upon a hill, as I do now, / To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, / Thereby to see the minutes how they run, / How many make the hour full complete; / How many hours bring about the day; / How many days will finish up the year; / How many years a mortal man may live.” The Nigerian-born British thespian portrayed Henry VI in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s three-part production in 2006-8; on these shores he has played Edgar in King Lear and the title character in Othello for Shakespeare in the Park, Hamlet for the Public Theater Mobile Unit, and the Duke of Birmingham in Richard III at BAM while also winning an Obie for Bruce Norris’s The Low Road. You should also check out Iwuji’s Brave New Shakespeare Challenge performance of the balcony scene from Romeo & Juliet, delivered from his home in Harlem. Future RemarkaBULL Podversations feature the “I am I” speech from Richard III with Matthew Rauch on July 6 and the “All the World’s a Stage” soliloquy from As You Like It with Stephen Spinella on July 13.

YES! REFLECTIONS OF MOLLY BLOOM

molly bloom

Who: Aedín Moloney of the Irish Repertory Theatre
What: Livestreamed performances adapted for onscreen viewing
Where: Irish Rep onine (link sent after RSVP)
When: Tuesday, June 16, 7:00; Wednesday, June 17, 3:00 & 8:00; Thursday, June 18, 7:00; Friday, June 19, 8:00; Saturday, June 20, 3:00, advance RSVP required (suggested donation $25)
Why: The Irish Rep has become one of the busiest theater companies in New York City during the pandemic, presenting a brand-new coronavirus-related work and hosting the Meet the Makers and The Show Must Go Online series. On May 27 it premiered The Gifts You Gave to the Dark, Darren Murphy’s short, heartbreaking work about a man (Marty Rea) in Belfast with Covid-19 unable to visit his dying mother (Marie Mullen) in Dublin, who is being cared for by her brother (Seán McGinley). Directed by Caitríona McLaughlin, the play gets right to the heart of the crisis as only Irish tales can; it will be available online through October 31.

The Irish Rep now turns its attention to adapting several recent stage productions for the internet, beginning with Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom. The award-winning seventy-five-minute one-woman show, based on James Joyce’s epic Ulysses, was adapted by Aedín Moloney and Colum McCann, directed by Kira Simring, and features music by Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains (and Aedín’s father); it originally ran at the company’s home on West Twenty-Second St. in June and July of last year, with Moloney as Molly Bloom in the early morning hours of June 17, 1904, as she considers love, loneliness, and isolation. The full team has now reimagined the play for onscreen viewing, with Aedín Moloney reprising her role; it will be performed live from June 16 — Bloomsday, when Joyce’s iconic tome takes place — through June 20. Admission is free with advance RSVP, with a suggested donation of $25.

The Irish Rep continues its online foray with “Meet the Maker: Frank McCourt . . . And How He Got That Way: A Conversation with Ellen McCourt and Malachy McCourt” on June 18; “Meet the Maker: Conor McPherson” on July 2; a special gala screening with new video of Frank McCourt’s The Irish . . . and How They Got That Way on July 13; “Meet the Makers: John Douglas Thompson and Obi Abili on Breaking Barriers in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones” on July 16; Dan Butler, Sean Gormley, John Keating, Tim Ruddy, and Amanda Quaid in an online version of Conor McPherson’s The Weir from July 21 to 25; and a virtual version of Barry Day’s Love, Noël, a musical about Noël Coward starring Steve Ross and KT Sullivan, from August 11 to 15. I’m exhausted just thinking about it, but I can’t wait to be at my computer to experience the joy of live theater, even if it’s through a screen.

VIRTUAL BLOOMSDAY ON BROADWAY

bloomsday

Who: Rita Wolf, Zach Grenier, Fiona Shaw, Nuala Kennedy & Caoimhín Vallely, Peter Francis James, Malachy McCourt, Mia Dillon, Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow, Kate Mulgrew, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Dancy, Donna Lynne Champlin, Colum McCann, Claire Danes, Dan Stevens, Juliana Canfield, Brenda Castles, Denis O’Hare, Kirsten Vangsness
What: Annual marathon reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses
Where: Symphony Space YouTube channel
When: Tuesday, June 16, free, 8:00 am
Why: Every June 16 since 1981, Symphony Space has been presenting “Bloomsday on Broadway,” a marathon all-star reading of James Joyce’s iconic 1922 novel, Ulysses, the book each one of us has but very few have finished. “Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed. A yellow dressinggown, ungirdled, was sustained gently behind him by the mild morning air. He held the bowl aloft and intoned: — Introibo ad altare,” the seven-hundred-plus-page tome begins. The story takes place on June 16, 1904, following Leopold Bloom, Molly Bloom, and Stephen Dedalus in a modernist retelling of Homer’s Odyssey.

A coproduction with the Irish Arts Center, “Bloomsday on Broadway” ventures online this year, with the performers reading from wherever they are sheltering in place instead of onstage at 2537 Broadway at Ninety-Fifth St. That turned out to be a bit of a blessing, as the lineup, curated by Jonathan Goldman, is even more impressive than usual: sharing episodes will be Zach Grenier, Fiona Shaw, Malachy McCourt, Mia Dillon, Kate Mulgrew, Cynthia Nixon, Hugh Dancy, Donna Lynne Champlin, Colum McCann, Claire Danes, and Denis O’Hare, with musical interludes by Brenda Castles, Nuala Kennedy & Caoimhín Vallely, and Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow. The event, which is part of “At Home with Irish Arts Center” and Symphony Space’s “Your Home” online programming during the pandemic lockdown, is free and will be streamed on YouTube from 8:00 am to 9:00 pm. Below is the full schedule, detailing who will be reading excerpts from each section at which time.

8:00 am
Episode I: Telemachus, by Stephen Colbert

8:45 am
Episode II: Nestor, by Rita Wolf

9:30 am
Episode III: Proteus, by Zach Grenier

10:15 am
Episode IV: Calypso, by Fiona Shaw

10:45 am
“Love’s Old Sweet Song,” by Nuala Kennedy & Caoimhín Vallely

11:00 am
Episode V: Lotus Eaters, by Peter Francis James

11:45 am
Episode VI: Hades, by Malachy McCourt

12:30 pm
Episode VII: Aeolus by Mia Dillon

1:00 pm
“The Heath Bald/Miller’s Maggot/Calliope House,” by Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow

1:15 pm
Episode VIII: Lestrygonians, by Kate Mulgrew

2:00 pm
Episode IX: Scylla and Charybdis, by Cynthia Nixon

2:45 pm
Episode X: Wandering Rocks, by Hugh Dancy

3:30 pm
Episode XI: Sirens, by Donna Lynne Champlin

4:00 pm
“Porthole of the Kelp,” by Chris Ranney & Caitlin Warbelow

4:15 pm
Episode XII: Cyclops, by Colum McCann

5:00 pm
Episode XIII: Nausicaa, by Claire Danes

5:45 pm
Episode XIV: Oxen of the Sun, by Brian Cox

6:30 pm
Episode XV: Circe, by Dan Stevens

7:15 pm
Episode XVI: Eumaeus, by Juliana Canfield

7:45 pm
“Raglan Road,” by Brenda Castles

8:00 pm
Episode XVII: Ithaca, by Denis O’Hare

8:45 pm
Episode XVIII: Penelope, by Kirsten Vangsness

THEATER OF WAR: THE KING LEAR PROJECT

theater of war

Who: Bryan Doerries, Frankie Faison, Amy Ryan, Kathryn Erbe, Marjolaine Goldsmith, David Zayas, Jumaane Williams
What: Live Zoom theatrical production and discussion from Theater of War
Where: Zoom link sent with advance registration
When: Thursday, June 11, free with RSVP, 7:00
Why: One of the best Zoom presentations of the pandemic has been Theater of War’s The Oedipus Project, in which Frances McDormand, John Turturro, Oscar Isaac, Jeffrey Wright, Frankie Faison, David Strathairn, Glenn Davis, Marjolaine Goldsmith, and Jumaane Williams gave a live, powerful dramatic reading of scenes from Sophocles’s fifth-century BCE classic, Oedipus the King, from wherever they were sheltering in place. (Most of the actors chose relatively spare, blank backgrounds while Turturro opted for an anachronistic study.) The event was introduced by Theater of War cofounder and adapter/director Bryan Doerries, who also led a postshow discussion relating the play to the Covid-19 crisis.

The organization now turns its attention to the themes of caregiving and death with The King Lear Project, streaming live on Zoom on June 11 at 7:00. In the play, Lear asks, “Doth any here know me? This is not Lear: Doth Lear walk thus? Speak thus? Where are his eyes? Either his notion weakens, or his discernings are lethargied — Ha! Waking? ’tis not so. Who is it that can tell me who I am?” To which the Fool responds, “Lear’s shadow.” The reading will feature another all-star lineup performing from home, consisting of Amy Ryan, David Zayas, Kathryn Erbe, Faison, Goldsmith, and Public Advocate Williams; it will be followed by a talk facilitated by Doerries with four community panelists on the subjects of aging, dementia, elder care, and family dynamics, examining the play — which Shakespeare wrote, perhaps while self-isolating, during the 1606 plague, when theaters had shut down — in context with the current pandemic.

HOWL! ALLEN GINSBERG FILM FESTIVAL — FERLINGHETTI: A REBIRTH OF WONDER

Lawrence Ferlinghetti proves to be a man of many hats in refreshing documentary

FERLINGHETTI: A REBIRTH OF WONDER (Christopher Felver, 2009) / HUM BOM! (Christopher Felver, 1999)
Howl!
Friday, June 5, free, 7:00
Festival continues through June 6
www.howlarts.org
ferlinghettifilm.com

“Poetry should be dissident, and subversive, and an agent for change,” poet, publisher, painter, activist, and military veteran Lawrence Ferlinghetti says in Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder, a refreshing and revealing documentary about the author of A Coney Island of the Mind and owner of the famous City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. The film is streaming online for free on June 5 at 7:00 as part of Howl!’s Allen Ginsberg Film Festival, which continues through June 6. Director Christopher Felver, who has previously made documentaries on John Cage, Tony Cragg, Donald Judd, and Cecil Taylor, has compiled ten years of interviews with Ferlinghetti, including trips to Italy, where the poet’s father was born; France, where the aunt who raised him was from; and his childhood home in New York.

Among those sharing their opinions of the charming and friendly Ferlinghetti, who turned 101 in March, are fellow poets Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, Anne Waldman, and Billy Collins as well as such other artistic figures as David Amram, Dave Eggers, Dennis Hopper, and Jean-Jacques Lebel, all of whom have only the most positive things to say about the film’s subject. Despite his radicalism and calls for social and political change around the world, Ferlinghetti is nearly always wearing a smile, clearly enjoying the long life he’s leading. He discusses his friendships with Kenneth Rexroth, Shakespeare & Co. founder George Whitman, and the Beats, primarily Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, focusing at one point on the censorship trial involving his publication of Ginsberg’s Howl, which turned into a critical battle over First Amendment rights. Counterculture guru Ferlinghetti is shown performing in a studio with Amram, accepting an award from the city of San Francisco, discussing his family, working on his abstract paintings, and wearing silly hats. He is completely at ease with who he is and where he came from, as well as where he’s going, still fighting the power as valiantly as ever, not just relaxing on his many laurels. Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder is also likely to make viewers think twice about their own lives, realizing there’s a great big world out there, and it is possible for each and every person to make a difference, especially during these challenging times.

A Rebirth of Wonder will be shown along with Felver’s 1999 short, Hum Bom!, featuring Ginsberg and Amram, as well as video of the 2018 Howl Gallery party. The celebration concludes June 6 at 7:00 with Colin Still’s 1997 doc No More to Say and Nothing to Weep For: An Elegy for Allen Ginsberg, Felver’s video for Sonic Youth’s “Making the Nature Scene,” and video of the 2019 Howl Gallery party.

#KIDLIT COMMUNITY RALLY FOR BLACK LIVES

Rally

Who: Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, Gene Luen Yang, Jerry Craft, Raul the Third, Renée Watson, Christopher Myers, K. A. Holt, more
What: Children’s book community call to action
Where: Facebook Live and Zoom
When: Thursday, June 4, free, 7:00
Why: In another part of my life, I work for a major children’s book publisher. During the pandemic, many parents, teachers, and children have turned to books more than ever, not just reading them at home but watching authors, celebrities, and others read stories online. The industry has also been a strong leader in the diversity movement, and on June 4 at 7:00, members of the kids’ book community will gather for a virtual call to action and rally for black lives. Hosted online by the Brown Bookshelf, which “is designed to push awareness of the myriad Black voices writing for young readers,” the #KidLit Rally for Black Lives is organized by Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, and Jason Reynolds, who will be joined by Gene Luen Yang, Jerry Craft, Raul the Third, Renée Watson, Christopher Myers, K. A. Holt, and others. At 7:00, there will be a live discussion with young people, followed at 7:45 by a talk with parents, educators, and librarians. As the Brown Bookshelf explains, “People around the nation are hurting. This is a time to come together and stand up. Our kids need us, and we are here for them.”

LIFE ANEW: WRITERS IMAGINE THE WORLD AFTER THE PANDEMIC

life anew

Who: Gabriela Adameșteanu, Ioana Nicolaie, T. O. Bobe, Simona Popescu, Robert Șerban, Andreea Răsuceanu, Carmen Firan, Ioana Ieronim, Ioana Es. Pop, Andrew K. Davidson, Carrie Hooper, Andreea Scridon
What: Weekly online literary performances
Where: Romanian Cultural Institute Facebook page
When: Tuesdays from June 2 to August 4, free with RSVP, 2:00
Why: The Romanian Cultural Institute in New York (ICR New York) is a small gem in Murray Hill, for decades offering unique arts events while serving the needs of Romanians and Romanian Americans here in New York City. The organization has been busy during the Covid-19 crisis, hosting daily online sociopolitical talks, concerts, film screenings, theater presentations, and more. Its latest initiative, held in conjunction with the National Museum of the Romanian Literature, is “Life Anew: Writers Imagine the World after the Pandemic,” taking place every Tuesday at 2:00 through August 4. Each week, authors, some with translators, will share their thoughts through poetry and prose about what the world might be like once we get back to normal, if normal is ever possible again. The lineup features authors Gabriela Adameșteanu, Ioana Nicolaie, T. O. Bobe, Simona Popescu, Robert Șerban, Andreea Răsuceanu, Carmen Firan, Ioana Ieronim, and Ioana Es. Pop and translators Andrew K. Davidson, Carrie Hooper, and Andreea Scridon. Admission is free with advance RSVP here.