twi-ny recommended events

COUNTRY BRUNCHIN’: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

Clint Eastwood is the Good in classic Sergio Leone operatic oater

NITEHAWK BRUNCH SCREENINGS: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Sergio Leone, 1966)
Nitehawk Cinema
136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.
August 6-7, 11:00 am
718-384-3980
www.nitehawkcinema.com

One of the all-time-great spaghetti Westerns, Sergio Leone’s dusty three-hour operatic oater stars Clint Eastwood as the Good (Blondie), Lee Van Cleef as the Bad (Angel Eyes), and Eli Wallach as the Ugly (Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez, whose list of criminal offenses is a riot), three unique individuals after $200,000 in Confederate gold buried in a cemetery in the middle of nowhere. Nearly twenty minutes of never-before-seen footage was added to the film several years ago, with Wallach and Eastwood overdubbing brand-new dialogue, so if you haven’t seen it in a while, it might just be time to catch it again. Ennio Morricone’s unforgettable score and Torino delli Colli’s gorgeous widescreen cinematography were also marvelously enhanced; their work in the scene when Tuco first comes upon the graveyard will make you dizzy with delight. And then comes one of the greatest finales in cinema history. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is screening at Nitehawk Cinema on August 6 & 7 at eleven in the morning in the dual series “Nitehawk Brunch Screenings” and “Country Brunchin’” (will spaghetti be on the menu?) and will kick off with a set by Arthur Vint & Associates, led by Arizona-born, Brooklyn-based drummer Vint; the group’s debut album, Through the Badlands, came out in January, mixing jazz, rock, and Native American spiritual music. “Nitehawk Brunch Screenings” continues in August with such other films as Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child, Richard Donner’s The Goonies, and Susan Seidelman’s She-Devil, among others.

THE SEEING PLACE THEATER: GETTING OUT / RHINOCEROS

The Seeing Place Theater is presenting RHINOCEROS, above, with Marsha Normans GETTING OUT at the Lynn Redgrave Theater

The Seeing Place Theater is presenting Eugène Ionesco’s RHINOCEROS, above, in repertory with Marsha Norman’s GETTING OUT at the Lynn Redgrave Theater

The Seeing Place @ the Lynn Redgrave Theater
45 Bleecker St. at Lafayette St.
Through August 7, $15
www.seeingplacetheater.com

The actor-driven Seeing Place Theater, whose name is the English translation of the Greek word theatron, continues its presentation of two very different works through this weekend as part of its “But Who Am I, Really” season. The company’s seventh season consists of Pulitzer Prize winner Marsha Norman’s Louisville-set debut play, 1978’s Getting Out, and Romanian-French absurdist Eugène Ionesco’s 1959 classic, Rhinoceros. The former follows a Kentucky woman trying to put her life back together after being released from prison, while the latter deals with a French villager recovering from a hangover as rhinos start stampeding all around him. Getting Out is directed by TSP founding managing director Erin Cronican, who also stars as Arlene, while Rhinoceros is directed by TSP founding artistic director Brandon Walker, who plays Berenger. “The more we’ve explored these plays as a pair the more we’ve noticed the profound amount of conformity society demands of us in order to keep us ‘civilized,’” Walker explained in a statement. “In both plays our central protagonist is faced with a fateful opportunity to step into a new reality, but who really makes this choice — the individual or society?” TSP has previously staged productions of such works as Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello, Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, Johnna Adams’s Gidion’s Knot, Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms, and Harold Pinter’s The Lover.

MARTIN CREED: THE BACK DOOR / UNDERSTANDING

A piano makes a different kind of music in “Martin Creed: The Back Door,” at the Park Ave. Armory through August 7 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

THE BACK DOOR
Park Ave. Armory
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
Through August 7, $15 (free with IDNYC card)
212-933-5812
www.armoryonpark.org
www.martincreed.com

UNDERSTANDING
Pier 6, Brooklyn Bridge Park
Through October 23, free, 6:00 am – 11:00 pm
www.publicartfund.org
understanding slideshow

Upon going through the front door of the Park Ave. Armory and entering the lobby to see “Martin Creed: The Back Door,” visitors are greeted by Creed’s recent music video “Understanding,” which features the multidisciplinary British artist playing multiple characters. “We were arguing / And I was saying, ‘I’m a victim’ / And you were saying, ‘I’m a victim’ / And I was saying, ‘I’m a victim,’” Creed sings to a bouncy pop tune. Meanwhile, to the right, a vertical white neon sculpture hangs from the ceiling, slowly turning, with the word “Other” on one side and “People” on the reverse. The pair of works serves as an excellent introduction to Creed, who over the course of his thirty-year career has worn numerous hats (and hairstyles), building an oeuvre that includes painting, sculpture, film, installation, music recordings, performance, and more that challenge the status quo and call into question political and social convention around the world. Given full rein in the first floor of the historic armory, Creed and big-time curators Tom Eccles and Hans-Ulrich Obrist have created a masterful display, emphasizing Creed’s wide diversity and whimsical nature. Doors and curtains open and close, lights go on and off, an object partially blocks entrance to a space, and a piano isn’t used quite as expected. A marching band leads a small procession, an abandoned bar invites curiosity, and short films show people puking, defecating, and, despite physical disabilities, crossing a New York City street without canes, crutches, walkers, or wheelchairs. One room is half-filled with balloons, while another features a wall of abstract portraits that call to mind the dignified paintings of military men that can be found throughout the armory; Creed’s sensibility so takes over that you might find yourself wondering whether certain of the military portraits aren’t pranks made by Creed. In the library, Creed has surreptitiously placed objects in the cabinets that display historical artifacts, exploring the very nature of labels and identification. Also in the library are small vitrines that contain exactly what their names explain they are or where they are: “Work No. 218: A sheet of paper crumpled into a ball,” “Work No. 158: Something on the left, just as you come in, not too high or low,” and “Work No. 74: As many 1″ squares as are necessary cut from 1″ masking tape and piled up, adhesive sides down, to form a 1″ cubic stack.”

Martin Creed’s “Work No. 2497: Half the air in a given space” allows visitors to play in a room half-filled with white balloons (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

In the Wade Thompson Drill Hall, Creed projects his “Mouth” series onto a massive screen, short videos of people (including his mother) chewing, followed by a surprise at the back of the hall that references, among other things, what eventually happens after one eats. In the bunkers to the side, eighteen of Creed’s videos are on constant loop in different spaces, including “Let Them In” and “Border Control,” which deal with immigration and basic human rights; “Flower Kicking,” in which a man kicks a plant as if it were a soccer ball; the romantic “You’re the One for Me,” in which Creed frolics on a beach and in the ocean; and “Fuck Off,” eighty-one seconds of Creed screaming the title words. “Martin Creed: The Back Door” is an endlessly inventive intervention that confirms once again that the armory is one of the city’s most unusual and exciting places to see exhibitions that can’t be held anywhere else. (On Thursday and Friday nights, the exhibition is open till 10:00, with a bar in one of the period rooms.)

Martin Creed asks for “Understanding” in Brooklyn Bridge Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

In a companion piece in Brooklyn Bridge Park, the Turner Prize-winning Creed, who was born in England, raised in Glasgow, and currently lives and works in London, has installed a giant revolving neon sign that very simply declares, “Understanding.” The ten-foot-tall letters, which sit atop a fifty-foot-long steel I-beam, spin around at varying speeds, sometimes coming to a brief stop, giving viewers a chance to reflect on the meaning of the word, whether seen frontward or backward. The kinetic sculpture, a project of the Public Art Fund, is visible from far away, mimicking an advertising sign, or can be viewed up close and personal, with steps that allow you to walk right up to it. As with most of Creed’s works, “Understanding” succeeds on numerous levels, particularly in a world torn apart by xenophobia, racism, hatred, and war. It is also the name of Creed’s most recent single and video, which, as noted above, can be seen in “The Back Door” (and here) and deals with victimhood. (“Understanding” can be found on Creed’s latest album, Thoughts Lined Up, which also includes such songs as “I’m Going to Do Something Soon,” “Everybody Needs Someone to Hate,” “Let’s Come to an Arrangement,” and “Difficult Thoughts.”) In addition, Lower Manhattan is visible through the letters and across the East River, where One World Trade Center has risen in the ashes of the Twin Towers. “Understanding” might seem somewhat quaint and obvious, but that’s part of the point, another thought-provoking work from an iconoclastic virtuoso who is finally getting his due.

QUIETLY

Ian (Declan Conlon), Robert (Robert Zawadzki), and Jimmy (Patrick O’Kane) do more than just watch the match in Owen McCafferty’s QUIETLY

Irish Repertory Theatre
132 West 22nd St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through September 11, $50 – $70
212-727-2737
www.irishrep.org

Owen McCafferty’s searing, sharp-edged, fictional Quietly might be set in a Belfast pub in 2009, but its theme is so frighteningly universal that it could be describing real events in any part of the world today. Polish émigré and barman Robert (Robert Zawadzki) is watching a World Cup qualifier between Poland and Northern Ireland when everyday regular Jimmy (Patrick O’Kane) comes in for a few pints. A bitter, angry man with a massive chip on his shoulder, Jimmy claims not to care about the game, or the news about a pub that was smashed up by some Poles. He warns Robert that there is likely to be a different kind of trouble when a man he is waiting for arrives. “But it’s nothin for you to worry about,” Jimmy says. Robert: “No trouble — can’t afford for trouble — I get the blame.” Jimmy: All a meant was just in case there was a bit a shoutin — don’t panic.” Robert: “A bit of shouting.” Jimmy: “Yes, a bit a shoutin — nothin for you to get involved in — ya understan — stay out of it — nothin to do with you.” Robert: “A bit of shouting — everyone shouts here — it’s the national sport.” Jimmy: “We all need to be heard at the same time.” The soft-spoken Robert is in Northern Ireland trying to make a new life for himself but is stuck in the same rut. “I didn’t come over here to be a barman — Belfast isn’t barman mecca — not the fucking capital of the barman world — I came over to work and ended up a barman because I was one before,” he tells Jimmy, who is lost in his own drama. The situation explodes almost immediately when Ian (Declan Conlon) enters the pub. Although both Ian and Jimmy are fifty-two and well aware of each other’s existence, they have never met before, despite their involvement in an event thirty-six years earlier that profoundly altered both their lives. “I’m here because we’re the same age,” Ian says. “You’re not my fuckin age — my age has to do with the life I’ve led — you haven’t led my life,” Jimmy responds, to which Ian adds, “I led a life — my life.” As the facts slowly start coming out on what happened on that fateful day of July 3, 1974, the tension builds to a shattering conclusion.

The award-winning Abbey Theatre production, being staged at the Irish Rep in association with the Public Theater, is a sizzling drama zeroing in on how politics, religion, status, and birthplace can tear people apart, leading to senseless violence no matter what side you’re on. It’s also very much about forgiveness, specifically referencing the controversial truth and reconciliation process. Conlon (The House, Terminus) is rock solid as Ian, carefully balancing pride and regret, and Zawadzki (The Shoemakers, Who Is That Bloodied Man?) is calm as Robert, who is caught in the middle. But Quietly belongs to the Belfast-born O’Kane (The House, As the Beast Sleeps), who won several UK best actor awards for his compelling performance. O’Kane commands the stage, whether sitting with crossed arms on a barstool, drinking a pint of Harp, or confronting Ian face-to-face. (Catherine Fay’s set is based on a real pub that McCafferty used to live near and which was blown up by the Ulster Volunteer Force.) You can almost see the heat rising from O’Kane’s bald pate. It’s a memorable performance in a gripping play, tautly directed by Lyric Theatre executive producer Jimmy Fay (The Risen People, Here Comes the Night). And it ends with a final reminder that, in this increasingly polemic, xenophobic world, anyone could be next.

ISAAC MIZRAHI: AN UNRULY HISTORY

(photo by Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com)

Jewish Museum exhibition highlights Isaac Mizrahi’s fashion design sense and colorful personality (photo by Will Ragozzino/SocialShutterbug.com)

The Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St.
Daily through August 7, $15 (free admission Saturday, pay-what-you-wish Thursday 5:00 – 8:00)
212-423-3200
www.thejewishmuseum.org
www.isaacmizrahi.com

“I feel like a filmmaker/playwright trapped in the body of a fashion designer . . . seriously,” Isaac Mizrahi says on the audioguide accompanying the sensational exhibition “Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History,” continuing at the Jewish Museum through August 7. Exhibition organizers Chee Pearlman and Kelly Taxter have done a fabulous job of creating a compelling narrative arc to the show, brilliantly bathing visitors in Mizrahi’s intense love of color (“Color is the biggest luxury there is.”), wild sense of humor (“I think that the ability to laugh at myself sets me apart. I don’t understand people without humor, and I just don’t like certain things because they have no humor.”), and proud dedication to both high and low culture, from movies and television to opera, theater, and art, from Woody Allen, Fred Astaire, and Bette Davis to The Red Shoes, Lucille Ball, and Egyptian hieroglyphics. The show also explores the Brooklyn-born-and-raised Mizrahi’s creative expression in a number of different media. Splendid fashion drawings, which are works of art on their own, cover two walls; the designer works out ideas for potential outfits in these small sketches of tall, thin models, their bodies filling the paper from top to bottom. Another room is like a runway through his career as a costume designer for choreographers Mark Morris and Twyla Tharp and as designer and director for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, for whom he created playful, fantastical costumes and a dazzling blue satin dress with one of the longest trains you’re ever likely to see, wrapping around a staircase and across the floor (for the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute). Another section sits the audience down for a montage of his numerous television and movie appearances, including hosting several programs of his own, competing on Celebrity Jeopardy!, guest judging on Project Runway, starring in his own one-man show (Les MIZrahi), selling his clothes at Target and on QVC, and making cameos galore. “Isaac is a polymath of many talents and does not take himself too seriously in that he doesn’t see himself as a grand fashion figure. What he is . . . is what you see,” Pearlman says on the audioguide. “There is an instant, infectious warmth to him. He channels a light, happy, joyous spirit which he unleashes in his clothing.”

Dozens of mannequins are adorned with Mizrahi’s unique designs, which reveal his personality, style, and endless ingenuity, which was first brought to the general public’s attention in the innovative 1995 documentary Unzipped. “Baby Bjorn Ballgown” is a striking red dress with a place for an infant in the front (“The birth of a child should be integrated into a woman’s social life.”). “The Real Thing” is a pailette dress made from flattened Coke cans, a sly riff on consumerism. “Desert Storm” celebrates camouflage in a new way. “Extreme Kilt” reimagines the Scottish traditional garb in cashmere flannel (“There’s a million rules about kilts, and about plaids, and I thought it was hilarious and I liked knowing everything about it and then being able to absolutely destroy this knowledge.”) “Kitchen Sink Pink Dress” was influenced by neon-light artist Dan Flavin, “Exploded Tulip” was based on an Irving Penn photograph, and “Grand Pupa” takes its name from its cocoonlike shape and the name of the leader of Fred Flintsone’s lodge. The exhibition also includes a series of photographs Nick Waplington took of Mizrahi at work from 1989 to 1993, clips from dance and theater performances that Mizrahi designed, directed, and/or appeared in, and a room of such accessories as “Lobster Epaulet,” “Cardboard Boater,” “Fox Piece,” “Spring Heeled Heels,” and “Campaign Box Clutch.” At the center of it all, Mizrahi’s love of life and fashion shine through, highlighting a fascinating rebel who has always insisted on doing things his own way. “I’m just going to be myself,” he says. To give as many people as possible a chance to see this superb midcareer retrospective, the Jewish Museum will be open on Wednesday (when it’s usually closed) and has extended viewing hours to 8:00 on Saturday (when it’s free) and Sunday.

TICKET ALERT: BAM 2016 NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

Mikhail Baryshnikov channels Nijinsky in Robert Wilson’s LETTER TO A MAN (photo by Lucie Jansch)

Who: Performers and/or creators Mikhail Baryshnikov, Isabelle Huppert, Ivo van Hove, Robert Wilson, Peter Brook, John Jasperse, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Alarm Will Sound, Howard Fishman, David Lang, Jonah Bokaer, Daniel Arsham, TR Warszawa, Cheek by Jowl, the Magnetic Fields, So Percussion, Wordless Music Orchestra, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Kyle Abraham / Abraham.In.Motion, Faye Driscoll, Mark Morris Dance Group, and many more
What: Annual fall interdisciplinary performance festival
Where: BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St.), BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave.), BAM Fisher (321 Ashland Pl.)
When: September 7 – December 3
Why: Tickets for BAM’s 2016 Next Wave Festival have just gone on sale to the general public, but you better hurry if you want to see some of the hottest shows of what is always a great collection of innovative dance, music, film, theater, and hard-to-describe hybrid presentations from around the world. This year there are more than five dozen events, including performances, talks, and master classes. We don’t know about you, but we’ll be practically living at BAM this fall. Below are five of our don’t miss favorites.

Isabelle Huppert stars as a modern-day mythical queen in PHAEDRA(S) (photo by Pascal Victor/ArtComArt)

PHAEDRA(S)
BAM Harvey Theater
September 13-18, $30-$95
Isabelle Huppert is back at BAM, following her stunning turns in Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis in 2005 and Robert Wilson’s Quartett in 2009. This time she stars as the mythological queen in Phaedra(s), in which director Krzysztof Warlikowski and Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe incorporate texts by Kane, Wajdi Mouawad, and J. M. Coetzee to tell the three-and-a-half-hour story of love and tragedy. On September 18, BAM will host the related panel discussion “Phaedra Interpreted” at Borough Hall as part of the Brooklyn Book Festival.

REMAINS
BAM Harvey Theater
September 21-24, $20-$45
John Jasperse, who presented the exhilarating Canyon at BAM in 2011, now looks back at his thirty-year career as well as toward the future in Remains, featuring dancers Maggie Cloud, Marc Crousillat, Burr Johnson, Heather Lang, Stuart Singer, and Claire Westby and music by John King. On September 22 at 2:00 ($30), Jasperse will teach a master class for intermediate to professional dancers at the Mark Morris Dance Center, and on September 23 at 6:00 ($25) he will participate in a talk with Tere O’Connor at BAM Fisher.

LETTER TO A MAN
BAM Harvey Theater
October 15-30, $35-$120
BAM regular Robert Wilson reteams with Mikhail Baryshnikov in this multimedia staging of the diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky; the two collaborated at BAM in 2014 with The Old Woman. Baryshnikov recently paid tribute to his friend Joseph Brodsky in Brodsky/Baryshnikov, while Wilson has presented such aural and visual spectacles at BAM as Quartett, The Black Rider, and Woyzeck. On October 24 at 7:00 at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, “Inside Nijinsky’s Diaries” will consist of an actor reading from the diaries, followed by a discussion (free with advance RSVP).

Ivo van Hove merges multiple Shakespeare plays into KINGS OF WAR (photo by Jan Versweyveld)

KINGS OF WAR
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
November 3-6, $24-$130
In-demand director Ivo van Hove and Toneelgroep Amsterdam return to BAM for a four-and-a-half-hour adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V, Henry VI Parts I, II & III, and Richard III. Van Hove has previously staged such works as Angels in America, Cries and Whispers, and Antigone (with Juliette Binoche) at BAM, in addition to the double shot of A View from the Bridge and The Crucible on Broadway.

THANK YOU FOR COMING: PLAY
BAM Fisher
Judith and Alan Fishman Space
November 16-19, $25
Choreographer Faye Driscoll follows up Thank You for Coming: Attendance with this new work, which we got a sneak peek at this past weekend on Governors Island. Driscoll’s presentations (There is so much mad in me, 837 Venice Blvd.) are always involving and unpredictable, and this piece is no exception. Driscoll will also be teaching a master class on November 18 at 2:00 ($30) for performers at all levels.

PRIVACY

A closed-down writer (Daniel Radcliffe) has trouble opening up to a psychiatrist (Reg Rogers) in PRIVACY at the Public (photo by Joan Marcus)

Newman Theater, the Public Theater
425 Lafayette St. at Astor P.
Tuesday through Sunday through August 14, $100
212-539-8500
www.publictheater.org

Tickets to James Graham and Josie Rourke’s Privacy come with a unique set of terms and conditions, advising “Privacy is a unique theatrical production that involves interactive moments with the audience, designed to explore how public many details of our lives have become. In order to better explore these issues, information that you provide when purchasing ticket(s) to the production of Privacy at the Public Theater will be used to inform some moments during your performance.” As far as “involving” theater goes, this coproduction with London’s Donmar Warehouse takes it to the next level, especially when, right before the show begins, the prerecorded voice of Public Theater artistic director Oskar Eustis asks audience members to leave their phone on, and then an address is given where they can send photos and texts to. Daniel Radcliffe stars as the Writer, a young man obsessing over his recent breakup with his boyfriend, who accused him of being too closed off. He is too scared to open up and share his innermost thoughts even with a psychiatrist (Reg Rogers), who guides him into situations in which he mentally faces his divorced parents (Rachel Dratch and Michael Countryman) and meets experts on information technology, cybersecurity, surveillance, social media, and personal privacy in the age of the iPhone. Among those he speaks with are Harvard professor Jill Lepore, journalists Ewen MacAskill and James Bamford, OKCupid cofounder Christian Rudder, MIT professor Sherry Turkle, former Facebook marketing director Randi Zuckerberg, FBI director James Comey, and U.S. senator Ron Wyden. These experts and family who enter the Writer’s mind are played by De’Adre Aziza, Raffi Barsoumian, an excellent Countryman, a terrific Dratch, and an outstanding Rogers and are identified by a projection of their faces and credentials on a large rear wall; all of their words are based on original interviews conducted by Graham and Rourke. As the Writer considers sharing more of his life with the psychiatrist as well as online, the audience is asked numerous times to text information or photos that are processed by onstage researcher Harry Davies and, within minutes, are incorporated into the show in clever ways. It’s almost like magic, but instead of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, Davies reveals surprisingly easy-to-access details about audience members. It’s both funny and frightening, but to say much more would give away too many of the show’s “tricks,” including a video appearance by a very special guest near the end.

Privacy concerns, with the onstage actors as well as audience members, are at the heart of James Graham and Josie Rourke’s participatory show (photo by Joan Marcus)

The casting of Radcliffe (The Cripple of Inishmaan, Equus) to play the shy, reserved Writer works on two major levels; first, he is excellent in the role, his unwillingness to talk about himself and his hesitant body movements beautifully capturing his character’s fears. In addition, Radcliffe became such an international star from the Harry Potter movies that he probably enjoys very little privacy in real life. He is particularly effective in a scene that may or may not be mostly improvised. When he is not the main subject of attention in the show, it drags significantly, but fortunately that is never for too long. Lucy Osborne’s uncomplicated set design allows Duncan McLean’s creative projections to often steal the audience’s attention, especially when — well, you’ll have to find that our for yourself, but don’t be surprised if you discover something rather personal about various people seated around you. Meanwhile, you won’t learn much about the cast in the Playbill, as numerous words and sentences have been redacted. And if you’re wondering who is providing the voiceovers, it’s British actors Simon Russell Beale and Harriet Walter. The first half of the show, which focuses on the Writer, is much stronger than the second half, which occasionally gets lost in the marvels of technology and the implications of sharing private information online. Also, if you already closely follow the ongoing controversies about government surveillance, drones, hacked email servers, smartphone protections, social media and online shopping algorithms, and other such privacy concerns, you might not learn much that is new. But writer Graham (This House, Finding Neverland) and director Rourke (Les Liaisons Dangereuses, City of Angels), who have also collaborated on The Vote at the Donmar Warehouse, maintain just enough drama to keep all of the data from overwhelming the story. (Radcliffe will be taking part in a TimesTalk with director Daniel Ragussis at the TimesCenter on August 8 at 7:00, discussing their upcoming film, Imperium; tickets are available here.)