twi-ny recommended events

TRIBECA FILM: LOOSE CANNONS

Family dinners don't always go so well in LOOSE CANNONS

LOOSE CANNONS (MINE VAGANTI) (Ferzan Ozpetek, 2010)
Wednesday, April 28, Village East, 181 Second Ave. at 12th St., 6:00
Saturday, May 1, Village East, 181 Second Ave. at 12th St., 8:30
www.tribecafilm.com

Turkish-born Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek’s latest foray into family drama might be somewhat slighter than such earlier triumphs as HAMAM and LE FATE IGNORANTI, but this examination of a dysfunctional group of relatives in Lecce is still plenty of fun. Riccardo Scamarcio, looking like a young, brooding Ray Liotta, stars as Tommaso, a gay man who is ready to come out during a big dinner celebrating the expansion of the family pasta-making business, but his older brother, Antonio (Alessandro Preziosi), steals his thunder by coming out first, shocking everyone and giving their father, Vincenzo (Ennio Fantastichini), a heart attack. Antonio is kicked out, leaving Tomasso to take over his role in the factory when what he really wants is to return to Rome to be a writer and live with his lover, Marco (Carmine Recano). But as he works with the gorgeous but dangerous Alba (Nicole Grimaudo), he learns about responsibility, among a few other surprising things. Meanwhile, his grandmother (Ilaria Occhini) agonizes over a long-lost love, his quirky aunt, Luciana (Elena Sofia Ricci), searches for a husband, and his mother, Stefania (Lunetta Savino), continues to boss around the very dour maid, Teresa (Paola Minaccioni). LOOSE CANNONS feels a little too old-fashioned, and the plot takes too many sitcom-like twists, but there is real heat between Scamarcio and Grimaudo, and the story is told with such charm and good humor that it overcomes some of the more confusing aspects of its meta-narrative.

STEPHEN PETRONIO COMPANY

The Stephen Petronio Company is performing the dazzling new “Ghostown” and more at the Joyce this week (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)

Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
April 27 – May 2, $10-$49
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
www.stephenpetronio.com

Contemporary dance’s reinvigoration and ever-widening appeal at the end of the twentieth century is due in no small part to a bounty of amazing, daring, and boundary-pushing choreographers; among the more prominent is Stephen Petronio, known for integrating visual arts, new music, and cutting-edge fashion into his works. Last year the New Jersey native began celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his company with a whirlwind international tour, culminating at the Joyce this week in a wonderful chronological program that looks back at Petronio’s history while forging ahead into the future. Petronio opens the evening himself with his signature solo, “#3” (1986); in a partially undone tux after what appears to have been a long night, Petronio announces his unique visual language, fluidly twisting and turning his neck and upper body, speaking out with his arms while standing, rooted, at the front of the stage, at times beckoning to the audience. Petronio then lets his powerfully muscled company show its astonishing stuff in the steamy, bravura “MiddleSexGorge” (1990). The dancers torque, thrust, and flex their torsos, pivoting arms and legs with swift, sharp, angular motions to an extended techno-industrial remix of British punk band Wire’s “Ambitious.” Petronio’s explosive take on the AIDS crisis features the men in white corsets and the women in slinky, structured tight black outfits, their serious facial expressions and speedy yet deliberate movement complemented by Wire repeatedly calling out, “Are you hot?”

After intermission, Julian DeLeon performs 1993’s “Love Me Tender,” a cute and charming evocation of the Elvis Presley classic, followed by the trio of Amanda Wells, Reed Luplau, and Shila Tirabassi dancing 1997’s “Foreign Import,” set to an acoustic version of Radiohead’s “Creep,” Wells and Tirabassi angelic in white, incorporating ballet techniques while Luplau, in circus-like garb, moves around and between them demonically, evoking, as the song says, a “weirdo.” The entire company then returns for the world premiere of the dazzling “Ghosttown,” a complicated, unpredictable dance set to the Wordless Music Orchestra’s performance of Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s “Popcorn Superhet Receiver.” In front of a screen continually changing colors, the performers, draped in diaphanous, shredded shroudlike costumes, cross the stage with mysterious precision, executing breathtakingly close yet emotionally distant moves. The piece marks a sophisticated new high point in Petronio’s work and a promise of even more exciting things to come.

Petronio will participate in a Dance Chat following the April 28 show. In addition, he will be teaching a master class on May 21 at the Joyce’s Dance Art New York Studios.

PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL OF INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE

Multiple venues
Through May 2
Most events free – $30
www.pen.org

The sixth annual PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature got under way April 26-27, with a panel discussion on diversity on Monday night and the $1,000 gala on Tuesday night, but things really kick into gear for the rest of the week, featuring more than 50 events with 150 writers from 40 countries. The Opening Night Extravaganza at the 92nd St. Y on Wednesday night, “Readings from Around the Globe,” includes the eclectic lineup of Mohsin Hamid, László Krasznahorkai, Yiyun Li, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, Soﬁ Oksanen, Atiq Rahimi, Salman Rushdie, Alberto Ruy-Sánchez, Patti Smith, Andrzej Stasiuk, and Miguel Syjuco. On Thursday, Barry Gifford, Richard Price, Philippe Djian, and Jean-Philippe Toussaint will discuss “Adaptation: From Page to Screen” at the Skirball Center, directed by Francine Prose. Meanwhile, Quim Monzó, Darryl Pinckney, Roxanna Robinson, and Colm Tóibín will be sharing “New York Stories” at the Morgan Library with moderator Edwin Frank. On April 30, free events include “David Almond and Sofi Oksanen in Conversation with Rakesh Satyal” and “Utopia and Dystopia: Geographies of the Possible” with Inga Kuznetsova, Jonathan Lethem, Eshkol Nevo, and Andrzej Stasiuk, moderated by Albert Mobilio, at the CUNY Graduate Center and “Quim Monzó in Conversation with Robert Coover” at NYU’s Deutsches Haus, while it’ll cost twenty bucks to see “The Great Fire—Shirley Hazzard in Conversation with Richard Ford” at the 92nd St. Y.

Patti Smith will be participating in several events at the sixth annual PEN World Voices Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Saturday’s most exciting event might be “Patti Smith and Jonathan Lethem in Conversation” in the historic Great Hall at the Cooper Union, although the talk that follows it, “Toni Morrison and Marlene van Niekerk in Conversation with Anthony Appiah,” should be pretty fine as well. Le Poisson Rouge will be hosting the fourth annual PEN Cabaret, this year starring Irakli Kakabadze, Natalie Merchant, Ben Okri, Ariel Dorfman, and other special guests, emceed by Rakesh Satyal. And on Sunday, the festival concludes in style with such gatherings as “Roddy Doyle in Conversation with Colum McCann” at FIAF, “A Life in Film” with Melvin Van Peebles and Greg Tate at the Brooklyn Library, “Ariel Dorfman in Conversation with Gabriel Sanders” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and Sherman Alexie delivering the fifth annual Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at the Cooper Union. There are many more events, with nearly everything $20 and under, or free, except for the cabaret, which is $30.

SAKURA MATSURI

Brooklyn Botanic Garden
900 Washington Ave. at Eastern Parkway
Saturday, May 1, and Sunday, May 2, $10-$15
718-623-7200
www.bbg.org/sakura2010

There is nothing quite like hanami in Brooklyn, the annual cherry blossom viewing at the botanic garden. More than two hundred flowering Japanese cherry trees are expected to be in bloom this weekend for the Sakura Matsuri, a two-day festival of dance, music, art, workshops, food, workshops, and nature that always attracts large crowds excited to experience the pure beauty of it all. Among this year’s participants are Soh Daiko, Nihon Buyo Classical & Ryukyu Buyo Okinawan Dance, the Spring Street Haiku Group, happyfunsmile, Samurai Sword Soul, poet Enta Kusakabe, Dean Street FOO Dance, Kagero Japanese Gypsy rock, Pokémon voice artist Veronica Taylor, DJ Saiko Mikan, stand-up comic Uncle Yo, woodblock artist April Vollmer, children’s Taiko drummers Genki Daiko Team, Masayo Ishigure and the Miyabi Koto Shamisen Ensemble, and the Japanese Folk Dance Institute of NY. Special events and activities include a Mataro Ningyo dollmaking demonstration, a Sohenry-style tea ceremony, the Manga & Anime Artist Alley, a cosplay fashion show, origami paper folding, ikebana flower arranging, a children’s tattoo parlor, a high tea with the Parasol Society, Japanese hot-pot cooking, bonsai advice for home gardeners, and so much more. It’s really one of the best weekends of the year, a must-see for every New Yorker that will become an annual ritual once you experience its charm.

TWI-NY GIVEAWAY: JOHN FRIEDA STYLE ON SITE TOUR

John Frieda mobile hair-care salon will offer free treatments in Times Square April 27-29

Broadway between 42nd & 43rd Sts.
April 27-29, free, 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
www.johnfrieda.com/salontour2010

Monster trucks in NYC don’t usually equal high style, but the eighteen-wheeler pulling into Times Square April 27, 28, and 29 brings exactly that. The John Frieda/BCBG Style on Site Tour features a massive semi, gutted and turned into a huge mobile salon, with receptionist, styling stations, and more — just like a regular hair place but without the NYC rent. In the truck, celebrity hair guru Harry Josh, who does Gisele Bundchen’s signature color and works on such trendy New Yorkers as Gwyneth Paltrow and Sarah Jessica Parker, will join with a team of John Frieda stylists to dish out free fifteen-minute style consultations and lessons on a first-come, first-served basis, featuring personalized “prescriptions” for John Frieda products. After the hair sessions, visitors are invited to the BCBG mini-boutique for fashion advice and to pick up event-exclusive products available at a special John Frieda discount. If you can’t make it to Times Square, sign up to win a one-on-one consult with Josh via Skype, or catch the bus at one of its remaining stops in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Chicago.

But a pair of lucky twi-ny readers can win the new John Frieda Root Awakening line for free: Just send your email address to contest@twi-ny.com with your name, age, and daytime phone number by Thursday, April 29, at 3:00 pm. All entrants must be at least twenty-one years of age; the two winners will be selected at random.

CREDITORS

Anna Chancellor can’t catch a break in CREDITORS (photo by Hugo Glendinning)

BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. at Rockwell Pl.
Through May 16 (April 22 performance reviewed)
Tuesday – Sunday, $25-$75
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in David Grieg’s searing adaptation of August Strindberg’s CREDITORS, running at BAM through May 16. The Donmar Warehouse production, wonderfully directed by Alan Rickman, had a hugely successful run in London in the fall of 2008 and arrives at the Harvey Theater with the original cast intact: Tom Burke stars as Adolph, a deeply troubled painter and sculptor losing faith in his art and his life while suffering from a mysterious debilitating illness that requires him to use crutches; Anna Chancellor plays his flirtatious wife, Tekla, a successful novelist who is gallivanting around town while Adolph has remained in their island vacation villa; and Owen Teale is Gustav, a well-spoken stranger whose carefully chosen words first help then confuse Adolph.

Gustav (Owen Teale) shakes up Adolph (Tom Burke) in August Strindberg’s CREDITORS (photo by Stephanie Berger)

The ninety-minute show is divided into three sections, each one involving two of the characters dissecting one another as well as the offstage person, all taking place in Adolph and Tekla’s bright hotel room, designed by Ben Stones. At one point Gustav tells Adolph that he is performing an autopsy of the human soul, and that’s precisely what Strindberg has done with the play, his final naturalistic work prior to INFERNO CRISIS and his shift into expressionism. CREDITORS is a brutal and unrelenting carving up of the psyche, a skewering of the complex relationships that grow out of love, sex, and marriage. The exceptional acting is led by Burke, who won the Ian Charleson Award in England for his original portrayal of the poor, pathetic Adolph, the centerpiece of this too-rarely-performed, extremely dark comedy that will force audiences to contemplate their own relationships. The April 27 performance will be preceded by an Artist Talk with Rickman, moderated by Patrick Healy ($10).

HARPER LEE’S TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

Harper Lee’s classic courtroom novel turns fifty this year

50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Wednesday, April 28, $24, 8:00
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org

One of the most important novels of the twentieth century, Harper Lee’s TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD continues to have impact and remain relevant on succeeding generations for its insights into racism, responsibility, the legal system, childhood, and the human psyche. Lee, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, turns eighty-four on April 28, and Symphony Space will wish her a happy birthday by celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of her Pulitzer Prize-winning book with celebrity readings, a panel discussion, and a Q&A with Stephen Colbert, Libba Bray, Oskar Eustis, Kurt Andersen, Jayne Anne Phillips, and Mary McDonagh Murphy. Don’t expect Lee to be there; since the success of MOCKINGBIRD and her work with Truman Capote on IN COLD BLOOD, she has made few public appearances and published only three magazine essays, way back in the 1960s.