twi-ny recommended events

SECOND STAGE THEATRE: BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY

BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY is making a return engagement at Second Stage (photo by Kevin Thomas Garcia)

Who: Second Stage Theatre
What: Between Riverside and Crazy
Where: Tony Kiser Theatre, 305 West 43rd St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
When: January 16-31, $79-$125
Why: One of the best plays of 2014, the Atlantic Theater Company’s splendid production of Between Riverside and Crazy is back for another run, transferring to Second Stage January 16-31. Nearly the entire cast is returning for the play, written by Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Austin Pendleton, which deals with an ornery former beat cop who was shot by a fellow police officer and is refusing to accept a settlement from the city. The wonderful Stephen McKinley Henderson is back as Pops, with Victor Almanzar as Oswaldo, Rosal Colón as Lulu, Elizabeth Canavan as Audrey, Michael Rispoli as Lt. Caro, and Liza Colón-Zayas as the new church lady; the always excellent Ron Cephas Jones replaces Ray Anthony Thomas as Junior. The first time around, we noted that “Between Riverside and Crazy again demonstrates [Guirgis’s] sharp ear for dialogue and his keen sense of characterization as he creates complex, realistic situations filled with surprise twists and turns.” You can read our full review of the original production here.

NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL — WAR AGAINST WAR: FEAR AND DESIRE

Stanley Kubrick’s first film is a curious, intense psychological war drama

FEAR AND DESIRE (Stanley Kubrick, 1953)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Tuesday, January 20, 6:15
Festival runs January 14-29 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Jewish Museum
212-875-5050
www.nyjff.org
www.filmlinc.com

Fear and Desire, Stanley Kubrick’s seldom-seen 1953 psychological war drama and his first full-length film, made when he was just twenty-four, is a curious tale about four soldiers (Steve Coit, Kenneth Harp, Paul Mazursky, and Frank Silvera) trapped six miles behind enemy lines. When they are spotted by a local woman (Virginia Leith), they decide to capture her and tie her up, but leaving Sidney (Mazursky) behind to keep an eye on her turns out to be a bad idea. Meanwhile, they discover a nearby house that has been occupied by the enemy, and they argue over whether to attack or retreat. Written by Howard Sackler, who was a high school classmate of Kubrick’s in the Bronx and would later win the Pulitzer Prize for The Great White Hope, and directed, edited, and photographed by the man who would go on to make such powerful, influential war epics as Paths of Glory, Full Metal Jacket, and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Fear and Desire features stilted dialogue, much of which is spoken off-camera and feels like it was dubbed in later. Many of the cuts are jumpy and much of the framing amateurish. Kubrick was ultimately disappointed with the film and wanted it pulled from circulation; instead it was preserved by Eastman House in 1989 and restored twenty years later, which was good news for film lovers, as it is fascinating to watch Kubrick learning as the film continues. His exploration of the psyche of the American soldier is the heart and soul of this compelling black-and-white war drama that is worth seeing for more than just historical reasons.

The sudden arrival of a local woman (Virginia Leith) complicates things in FEAR AND DESIRE

“There is a war in this forest. Not a war that has been fought, nor one that will be, but any war,” narrator David Allen explains at the beginning of the film. “And the enemies who struggle here do not exist unless we call them into being. This forest then, and all that happens now, is outside history. Only the unchanging shapes of fear and doubt and death are from our world. These soldiers that you see keep our language and our time but have no other country but the mind.” Fear and Desire lays the groundwork for much of what is to follow in Kubrick’s remarkable career. Fear and Desire is screening with Peter Watkins’s The War Game on January 20 at 6:15 at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the War Against War sidebar program of the twenty-fourth annual New York Jewish Film Festival, which focuses on antiwar films from the 1950s and 1960s; the schedule also includes Gillo Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers, Kon Ichikawa’s Fires on the Plain, Konrad Wolf’s I Was Nineteen, and Jean-Luc Godard’s Les Carabiniers, centered by a panel discussion on January 19 at 3:00 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (free with advance RSVP) with Kent Jones, Martha Rosler, Harrell Fletcher, and Trevor Paglen, moderated by Jens Hoffmann. Dr. Strangelove is part of the NYJFF as well, showing at the Walter Reade on January 18 at 9:15, introduced by Jennie Livingston.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: 20AT20

The Irish Rep revival of DA is among more than three dozen shows participating in 20at20 promotion

Multiple venues
January 20 – February 8, $20
www.20at20.com

It’s once again time for off-Broadway’s annual 20at20 promotion, in which theater lovers can score $20 tickets to more than three dozen productions twenty minutes before curtain by going up the box office and saying, “20at20.” Among this year’s participants are the revival of Da at the DR2 Theatre, A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes at City Center, Men and Women Talking Love and Sex at the Davenport, Churchill and Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe at New World Stages, The Lion at the Lynn Redgrave Theater, The Road to Damascus and The Woodsman at 59E59, Wiesenthal at the Acorn, Rasheeda Speaking with Tonya Pinkins and Dianne Wiest at the Signature, Fashions for Men at the Mint, Application Pending at the Westside, and Film Chinois at the Samuel Beckett.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: In case that deal isn’t good enough, we’ve got an even better one for you. We have vouchers for three of the shows participating in 20at20 that will score you a pair of free tickets in advance. To be eligible to win, just send your name, daytime phone number, and which show you’d like to see to contest@twi-ny.com by Monday, January 19, at 12 noon. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; winners will be selected at random.

NEW YORK JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL — WAR AGAINST WAR: FIRES ON THE PLAIN

Kon Ichikawa’s harrowing FIRES ON THE PLAIN is part of War Against War sidebar of 2015 New York Jewish Film Festival

FIRES ON THE PLAIN (NOBI) (Kon Ichikawa, 1959)
Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St. between Eighth Ave. & Broadway
Monday, January 19, 1:00
Festival runs January 14-29 at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Jewish Museum
212-875-5050
www.nyjff.org
www.filmlinc.com

Kon Ichikawa’s Fires on the Plain is one of the most searing, devastating war movies ever made. Loosely based on Shohei Ooka’s 1952 novel and adapted by Ichikawa’s wife, screenwriter Natto Wada, the controversial film stars Eiji Funakoshi as the sad sack Tamura, a somewhat pathetic tubercular soldier on the island of Leyte in the Philippines at the tail end of World War II. After being released from a military hospital, he returns to his platoon, only to be ordered to go back to the hospital so as not to infect the other men. He is also given a grenade and ordered to blow himself up if the hospital refuses him, which it does. But instead of killing himself, Tamura wanders the vast, empty spaces and dense forests, becoming involved in a series of vignettes that range from darkly comic to utterly horrifying. He encounters a romantic Filipino couple hiding salt under their floorboards, a quartet of soldiers stuffed with yams trying to make it alive to a supposed evacuation zone, and a strange duo selling tobacco and eating “monkey” meat. As Tamura grows weaker and weaker, he considers surrendering to U.S. troops, but even that is not a guarantee of safety, as the farther he travels, the more dead bodies he sees. Fires on the Plain is a blistering attack on the nature of war and what it does to men, but amid all the bleakness and violence, tiny bits of humanity try desperately to seep through against all the odds. And the odds are not very good. Fires on the Plain is screening January 19 at 1:00 at the Walter Reade Theater as part of the War Against War sidebar program of the twenty-fourth annual New York Jewish Film Festival, which focuses on antiwar films from the 1950s and 1960s; the schedule also includes Gillo Pontecorvo’s Battle of Algiers, Stanley Kubrick’s Fear and Desire, Konrad Wolf’s I Was Nineteen, Jean-Luc Godard’s Les Carabiniers, and Peter Watkin’s The War Game, anchored by a panel discussion on January 19 at 3:00 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center (free with advance RSVP) with Kent Jones, Martha Rosler, Harrell Fletcher, and Trevor Paglen, moderated by Jens Hoffmann.

UNDER THE RADAR: A (radically condensed and expanded) SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING I’LL NEVER DO AGAIN — AFTER DAVID FOSTER WALLACE

David Foster Wallace’s love of tennis informs unique production based on his readings and interviews (photo by Brian Rogers)

Anspacher Theater at the Public Theater
425 Lafayette St.
Through January 16, $25
212-967-7555
www.publictheater.org
www.danielfish.net

Daniel Fish returns to the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival with an ingenious take on the work of Infinite Jest author David Foster Wallace, who committed suicide in 2008 at the age of forty-six. But A (radically condensed and expanded) Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again isn’t about the life or death of the Ithaca-born writer, nor is it a theatrical adaptation of the title short story. It’s not even a celebration of the written word; instead, the ninety-minute show, continuing at the Public’s Anspacher Theater through January 16, focuses on the spoken word, inspired by the way Wallace vocalized, whether narrating an audiobook, giving an interview, or making a speech. Moved by the rhythm, tone, and pattern of Wallace’s voice, Fish, who presented Eternal at last year’s Under the Radar Festival, scoured the archives of the David Foster Wallace Audio Project for essays, short stories, excerpts, and interviews with Wallace and created various setlists of the pieces over the last few years; one stretched to a four-hour marathon. But the audience doesn’t actually hear Wallace; instead, Fish sends Wallace’s audio recordings into headphones worn by performers Mary Rasmussem (Trade Practices), Jenny Seastone Stern (Our Planet), Therese Plaehn (Family Play), and John Amir (All Your Questions Answered), who repeat the words out loud. Fish often changes speeds in the recordings he feeds them, resulting in the actors’ sometimes having to speak very fast, using their bodies to help them keep up.

The current iteration of the show includes such Wallace writings as his outrageously funny 1996 Harper’s piece “Shipping Out: On the (Nearly Lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise”; “Forever Overhead,” which takes place at a swimming pool as a boy turns thirteen; and “How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart,” an essay/book review that delves into Wallace’s longtime love of tennis. In fact, the sport plays a central role in the production. As the audience enters the theater — seating is general admission — a tennis machine is shooting yellow balls at a picture of Tracy Austin taped to the wall. The tennis balls remain on the stage throughout the show. The actors, who at one point move all the balls to the back of the stage, are in a kind of tennis match themselves, waiting for the words to come to them (they don’t know which parts Fish will send them or how fast he’ll make them) as if preparing for the next tennis shot, ready to volley Wallace’s words at the audience, but it goes beyond mere repetition and into a sheer love of language. Even at ninety minutes, A (radically condensed and expanded) Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again feels a little too long — when you’re reading a short story or listening to an audiobook, you have the ability to stop for a while and ponder what you’ve read or heard, but in this case there’s no off switch — but it’s most definitely a fun thing, even if we haven’t decided whether we’ll ever do it again. But one thing we’ll definitely do is read or listen to a whole lot more by Mr. Wallace.

BURQ OFF!

Nadia P. Manzoor plays twenty-one characters in deeply personal one-woman show (photo courtesy of Dan Demello Public Relations)

Teatro Circulo
64 East Fourth St. between Bowery & Second Ave.
January 14-18, 425-$30
www.nadiapmanzoor.com
www.teatrocirculo.org

Writer and performer Nadia P. Manzoor, who was born in Chicago, moved to Singapore and Dubai as a toddler, then was raised primarily in a Pakistani immigrant community in North London, lifts the veil off her struggle to break free of the cultural norms that envelop her in her one-woman show, Burq Off!, running through January 18 at Teatro Circulo. Mitchell Ost’s set features a table and three chairs surrounded by a crescent-shaped wall draped with heavy, brightly colored, elaborately designed fabrics, the only opening a small, sparkling window in the center back, offering Nadia the hint of a bigger world outside. Over the course of eighty minutes, Manzoor symbolically removes the layers of cloth that metaphorically obstruct Islamic women from living lives of freedom, using stories from her childhood as a microcosm for women around the world. Manzoor plays twenty-one people in the production, changing accents and twisting and folding a red scarf to create costumes to depict such characters as her mother, Ammi, and her father, Abbu, who both adhere to the old Pakistani ways; her annoying twin brother, Khurram; family friend Aunty Ji; Katy, her sexually liberated English schoolmate; her teacher Molvisaab; her first cousin and first crush, Mustafa; and her bartender boyfriend, Brendan. The modern-day Nadia, who serves as narrator, introduces the play with a memory of herself at five years old, when she wanted to be an astronaut. “Lying in bed, time would disappear as I gazed into the night sky. Mesmerized by the infinite, I would just begin to float, like smoke, far away from my bedroom, from my family, from my house in Hertfordshire, England, and towards I didn’t know what.” But her parents immediately shoot down her dreams. “How can you be an astronaut,” her father says. “Women can’t be astronauts. Who will cook? Who will clean? Who will feed your husband if you are floating about in space?” Her mother adds, “One day you will make a man very very happy.”

Nadia P. Manzoor uses various accents and a red scarf to differentiate among friends and family in BURQ OFF! (photo courtesy of Dan Demello Public Relations)

The setting shifts from her family’s dining room to her school dorm to her mother’s hospital bed as Nadia attempts to overcome the ties that bind her, experiencing love and loss as she considers options that go against the dictates of the society in which she was born and raised, including a set of strict, old-fashioned rules her father gives her as a college present. She talks about the influence of Bollywood movies, how her mother referred to her vagina as “shame shame,” and the hypocrisy of her culture. Manzoor has an easy way about her, immediately drawing the audience onto her side. Although some of the vignettes are fairly familiar for the coming-of-age genre, the bits about Mustafa and Brendan are particularly effective and unique. Directed and developed by Tara Elliott, Burq Off! recalls Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis, about a young girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran, and Anna Khaja’s one-woman show, Shadeed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto, in which Khaja portrays eight characters with differing views of the prime minister on the day she was killed. Manzoor, who is also preparing the online series Shugs & Fats, never gets quite so overtly political, but her personal liberation is political in and of itself, as it is for so many women in so many cultures around the world.

AMERICAN REALNESS — JACK FERVER: NIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT

Jack Ferver explores the similarities between the late Fred Herko and himself in NIGHT LIGHT BRIGHT LIGHT

Who: Jack Ferver
What: Night Light Bright Light, part of American Realness performance festival, which continues through January 23
Where: Abrons Arts Center Playhouse, 466 Grand St. at Pitt St., 212-598-0400
When: Wednesday, January 14, 6:30, Friday, January 16, 10:00, and Sunday, January 18, 7:00, $20
Why: Multidisciplinary performance artist Jack Ferver pays tribute to late dancer, actor, and choreographer Fred Herko, a kindred spirit who, at the age of twenty-eight in 1964, took a bath and danced naked to Mozart music right out a window; Ferver, who has performed such previous deeply personal works as Two Alike, Rumble Ghost, All of a Sudden, and Mon, Ma, Mes, notes on his website that like Herko, “I am a dancer, an actor, a choreographer, and I love taking baths and I have danced naked though have yet to jeté out a window. I have often talked about suicide with my childhood friend Reid Bartelme. Reid will join me in the work. Reid is a beautiful dancer. Reid will make sure I don’t jump.”