Tag Archives: brooklyn academy of music

TONEELGROEP AMSTERDAM: CRIES AND WHISPERS

A brave artist’s impending death is the focus of multimedia stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s CRIES AND WHISPERS at BAM (photo by Jan Versweyveld)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
October 25-29, $25-$80, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.tga.nl

The Brooklyn Academy of Music has had a long and fruitful relationship with Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, presenting his films as well as stage productions over the decades. Among the plays Bergman directed at BAM were A Doll’s House, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Miss Julie, The Ghost Sonata, Maria Stuart, and Ghosts, and shortly after his death BAM put together a stellar lineup of actors to read from his diary, including Bibi Andersson, Pernilla August, Lena Olin, and Peter Stormare. BAM and the late auteur continue their collaboration this week with the U.S. premiere of Toneelgroep Amsterdam multimedia adaptation of Bergman’s 1972 intense family drama Cries and Whispers, which starred Harriet Andersson, Kari Sylwan, Ingrid Thulin, and Liv Ullmann. The Dutch company, led by director Ivo van Hove, has previously adapted such cinematic gems as John Cassavetes’s Faces, Husbands, and Opening Night and Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers and Ludwig in addition to classic works by Shakespeare, Molière, Williams, Hellman, O’Neill, Ibsen, Chekhov, Pinter, and others. Cries and Whispers features scenography by Jan Versweyveld, dramaturgy by Peter van Kraaij, video design by Tal Yarden, costumes by Wojciech Dziedzic, and sound design by Roeland Fernhout, all coming together for what looks to be an appropriately complex and moving experience.

A family faces some harsh truths in CRIES AND WHISPERS (photo by Jan Versweyveld)

Update: Ivo van Hove paints a harrowing, brutal, yet ultimately strangely comforting portrayal of death in Toneelgroep Amsterdam’s intense and, at times, inexplicable Cries and Whispers, running at BAM’s Harvey Theater through October 29. Liberally adapted from Ingmar Bergman’s 1972 film — the company previously staged Bergman’s epic, documentary-like Scenes from a Marriage — this multimedia version turns the protagonist, Agnes (an immensely brave Chris Nietvelt), into a visual artist who is recording her final days, evoking Hannah Wilke’s “Intra-Venus” project. Jan Versweyveld’s stunning set contains mirrors, video screens, television monitors, a drop-down white surrounding wall, reflective glass, and multiple rooms in a mansion where Agnes is being cared for by her sisters, Karin (Janni Goslinga) and Maria (Helina Reijn), and her attending nurse, Anna (Karina Smulders). The pain Agnes feels is physically and emotionally palpable, echoing throughout the theater, especially when she releases an ear-piercing, shattering death howl as an overhead camera swings like a pendulum counting down her last breaths. The twelve silent minutes that follow are mesmerizing — and the show is still barely half over at that point. Although van Hove offers snippets of the other characters’ lives, not enough is learned about them, and there is a heavy dose of nudity, both male and female, that seems titillating but not always necessary. And some viewers might need a stronger stomach when Agnes takes care of some unpleasant bodily functions in plain view. Van Hove has added personal touches to the story, influenced by the death of his own father, who died in 2007, the same year as Bergman. The white color scheme is offset by Agnes’s blue paint and videos, providing a stark contrast that pays homage to Sven Nykvist, who won the Oscar for Best Cinematography for his camerawork on the film version. Van Hove recently told Gothamist that he’ll be back at BAM with an even bigger production for the 2012 Next Wave Festival; we can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeves for that.

JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN

Alan Rickman, Lindsay Duncan, and Fiona Shaw head a stellar production of Ibsen’s JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN at BAM (photo by Richard Termine)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St.
Through February 6, $25-$80
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Written in 1896, Henrik Ibsen’s penultimate play, JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN, feels as fresh and alive as if it were written yesterday. Frank McGuinness’s new English-language version, directed by James Macdonald and first presented at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre this past fall, is currently having its U.S. premiere at BAM’s Harvey Theater, in a splendid production running through February 6. Ibsen’s dark tale of greed, power, and cold, soulless hearts centers on a once-prominent family torn apart by scandal. John Gabriel Borkman (Alan Rickman) was a successful bank manager who ultimately got caught embezzling funds, serving five years in prison before returning home, where he has been pacing in his upstairs cave for eight more years, never seeing his destroyed wife, Gunhild (Fioan Shaw), or his now-grown son, Erhart (Marty Rea). While Borkman is determined to regain his position, refusing to admit his guilt, Gunhild is battling her twin sister, Ella Rentheim (Lindsay Duncan), over Erhart’s love; after Borkman’s arrest, Ella took in Erhart for six years as Gunhild tried to deal with the shame and suddenly having no money. Neither woman is happy that Erhart, in the meantime, has been spending more and more time with the older Fanny Wilton (Cathy Belton), a free-spirited woman whose husband recently left her. Over the course of one very long night, secrets are revealed in a series of dazzling scenes filled with fast-paced dialogue beautifully delivered by the outstanding cast. Set designer Tom Pye has surrounded the stage with large piles of snow, emphasizing the coldness that has taken over the main characters’ hearts. As Ella and Gunhild, both wearing long, mournful black dresses, give one another icy stares, they drag bits of snow into the middle of the sparse room, where chairs are set up by themselves, continuing the physical and psychological isolation, which is furthered by Borkman’s often vacant eyes. As Borkman speaks with his one friend, Vilhelm (John Kavanagh), and teaches piano to Vilhelm’s daughter, Frida (Amy Molloy), upstairs, the grandfather clock in the back can be heard ticking away, counting the seconds till Borkman’s ultimate destiny. Rickman, Duncan, and Shaw so embody their characters that on January 15, when a disturbance was going on in the right front corner of the audience, Rickman calmly announced, still in Borkman’s voice, that the play should be stopped because someone appeared to be ill. After several moments, the sick man was helped out of the theater, and Rickman and Duncan returned to the scene, picking up right where they left off, as if nothing had happened, their fiery passion as palpable as ever. Although McGuinness’s version was written in response to the economic crisis in Ireland, it is impossible not to think of such figures as Bernie Madoff as the Borkmans fight over their despised name, yet JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN still winds up a timeless, masterful piece of theater. (An Artist Talk with Duncan, Rickman, and Shaw, moderated by Paul Holdengräber, will follow the January 16 performance [$15, 6:45.])

SASHA WALTZ & GUESTS: GEZEITEN

Sasha Waltz returns to BAM with U.S. premiere of GEZEITEN (photo by Gert Weigelt)

Next Wave Festival
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
November 3, 5, 6, $20-$55, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.sashawaltz.de

Berlin-based choreographer Sasha Waltz returns to BAM’s Next Wave Festival with the U.S. premiere of GEZEITEN (TIDES), following 2002’s KÖRPER, which we called “playful and powerful, enlightening and frightening,” and 2005’s IMPROMPTUS, which we described as “a beautifully expressive piece.” Set in a postapocalyptic world, GEZEITEN incorporates physical objects and smoke and fire as the dancers deal with disaster. The nearly two-hour piece features music by Jonathan Bepler and Johann Sebastian Bach, costumes by Beate Borrmann, lighting by Martin Hauk, and stage design by Waltz and Thomas Schenk. As shown by her previous appearances at BAM, Waltz is a creative choreographer who is not afraid to push the envelope, keeping audiences rapt, never knowing quite what is going to happen next. There are only three performances of GEZEITEN, so don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to see this daring company in Brooklyn.

VOLLMOND (FULL MOON)

Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND is a wet and wild experience (photo by Laurent Philippe)

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Through October 9, $25 – $85 (October 1 performance reviewed)
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.pina-bausch.de

Returning to BAM for the first time since the sudden death of their founder and artistic director, Pina Bausch, in June 2009, Tanztheater Wuppertal is dazzling audiences in Brooklyn with the U.S. premiere of the 2006 evening-length piece VOLLMOND (FULL MOON). A large rock sits alone on a sparse black stage above a shallow, barely visible river of water. The first half of the 150-minute show is an utter delight as the twelve-member company enacts vignettes of love, romance, and the playful battle between the sexes, the men dressed in dark pants and button-down shirts, the women in elegant evening gowns and high heels. They flirt, kiss, and tell jokes, occasionally giving way to sparkling solos by the diminutive Rainer Behr and Ditta Miranda Jasjfi and others. Water, the elixir of life, is at the center of it all, whether the men are pouring drinks for the women or they all go for a swim in the river, rain crashing down in a breathtaking display.

Women dominate the battle of the sexes in VOLLMOND (photo by Jan Szito)

But the second half takes a darker turn, as costumes dim and tend toward black, the kissing and jokes replaced by violence and pain, the high tides of the full moon now pulling more turbulent currents to the surface. The first three solos are performed by the troupe’s older members, new co-artistic director Dominique Mercy (who has been with the company since Bausch took it over in 1973), longtime comic relief Nazareth Panadero, and the lithe, rail-thin Julie Anne Stanzak, their movements sharper and less fluid than those of the younger dancers. Where wooden sticks were earlier used to create a cool thwooshing sound, now they are weapons. Instead of filling a wineglass with a drink, a man now shoots a plastic cup off a woman’s head using a water pistol. The music also borders on the morose, including Cat Power’s eerie “Werewolf.” But soon the sexes are back in each other’s arms for a wet and wild finale. Bausch’s unique melding of dance, theater, comedy, and music is in abundant evidence throughout VOLLMOND, another terrific crowd pleaser from one of the world’s most gifted talents. Athough no one takes the customary choreographer’s bow after the show, Bausch’s presence is felt all night long. At one point, Panadero brings out a chair and warns a man away from it, stating that even ghosts need to sit down; everyone in the theater instantly understands whom she is talking about. Discussion and speculation over the future of Tanztheater Wuppertal swirl around whether it can go on without Bausch; VOLLMOND is a must-see on its own merits, but even more so considering the possibility that it could be the company’s last stand in New York.

DELUSION

Laurie Anderson is back at BAM with another multimedia examination of the personal and the political (photo by Leland Brewster)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St.
Through October 3, $20-$60
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Examining the twenty years of her life she has spent sleeping, Laurie Anderson’s new show, DELUSION, running at BAM’s Harvey Theater through October 3, consists of approximately twenty short mystery plays that move smoothly between the personal and the poltical, an intimate multimedia work about dreams and the state of the nation. Commissioned for the 2010 Vancouver Cultural Olympiad, DELUSION features some of Anderson’s sharpest writing in years, performed in her unique talk-singing style either as herself or as deep-voiced alter ego Fenway Bergamot. Anderson glides between several microphones on a stage that includes video projections on a loveseat, shredded paper, a small scrim, and a large screen in back, depicting leaves flying in the wind, smoke drifting endlessly, a chalkboard filled with hard-to-decipher words and images, moonscapes, a child witnessing her mother’s death, and giant live shots of Anderson herself, playing her specially made violin. Joined by Colin Stetson on bass saxophone and Eyvind King on a more traditional violin, both men primarily seen in silhouette, Anderson, dressed in her trademark white shirt and thin black tie, tells jokes and stories about age, memory, Iceland, nineteenth-century Russian space theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, punctuation, and her own heritage. The centerpiece of the show is “Another Day in America,” from Anderson’s latest album, the just-released HOMELAND; “And so finally here we are, at the beginning of a whole new era, the start of a brand new world,” she sings as Bergamot. “And now what? How do we start? How do we begin again? . . . And so which way do we go?” Throughout the ninety-minute performance, Anderson, who has previously staged such pieces as THE END OF THE MOON, SONGS AND STORIES FROM MOBY DICK, EMPTY PLACES, and the seminal UNITED STATES: PARTS I-IV at BAM, is warmer and friendlier than ever, filled with charm and good humor, making strong eye contact with the audience as she delves into fascinating topics with a wink and a knowing smile.

BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

Don’t get washed out of getting tickets to see Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND at BAM (photo by Laurent Philippe)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave.
BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St.
September 23 – December 19, $20-$85
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Now in its twenty-eighth year, BAM’s Next Wave Festival is, as always, a terrific collection of productions scouted from around the world. Single tickets go on sale Monday, August 30, for Laurie Anderson’s phantasmagoric DELUSION and Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND, an extremely strong one-two punch to get the season going, featuring a pair of longtime BAM favorites; we recently caught Anderson at (le) poisson rouge, and she’s still at the top of her game, while VOLLMOND is the final piece from the inventive, innovative, and endlessly entertaining Bausch, who passed away in June 2009, leaving behind a BAM legacy that included the thrilling BAMBOO BLUES, NEFÉS, and FUR DIE KINDER VON GESTERN, HEUTE, UND MORGEN, among other splendid shows. The rest of the series goes on sale September 7, with such highlights as Ralph Lemon’s HOW CAN YOU STAY IN THE HOUSE ALL DAY AND NOT GO ANYWHERE?, Stew’s BROOKLYN OMNIBUS, Julia Stiles in the Ridge Theater’s PERSEPHONE, Sasha Waltz’s GEZEITEN, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s version of Akira Kurosawa’s THRONE OF BLOOD, Thomas Ostermeier’s take on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, Gísli Örn Gardarsson and Nick Cave’s experimental exploration of Franz Kafka’s METAMORPHOSIS, and Mikel Rouse’s multimedia extravaganza GRAVITY RADIO. Subscription tickets are available right now; if you buy seats to four or more shows, you can save up to forty percent and receive such benefits as priority access to future seasons, flexible scheduling, and discounts for additional tickets.

EMOTIONAL SLOPPY MANIC CINEMA: LITTLE OTIK

Stop-motion Czech fairy tale is part of BAMcinématek’s “Emotional Sloppy Manic Cinema”

BAMcinématek
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Tuesday, August 17, 6:30 & 9:15
Series continues through August 24
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

LITTLE OTIK (OTESÁNEK) (Jan Svankmajer, 2000)
Poor Bozena (Veronika Zilková) and Karel (Jan Hartl) are unable to have a baby, so Karel decides to carve one out of a tree for his desperate wife. Bozena showers her wooden child with lots of love — and soon the little tyke is crying and very, very hungry. Based on a poem by Czech writer Karel Jaromír Erben, LITTLE OTIK was written and directed by master stop-motion animator Jan Svankmajer, who has made such feature-length films as ALICE (1988) and FAUST (1994) as well as myriad shorts, including PUNCH AND JUDY (1966), DON JUAN (1969), MEAT LOVE (1988), and FOOD (1992). In LITTLE OTIK, Svankmajer mixes live action and animation to create a delightful, if disturbingly bizarre, fairy tale. The film will screen on August 17 as part of BAMcinématek’s “Emotional Sloppy Manic Cinema,” a two-week series curated by brothers Josh and Benny Safdie The diverse group of works range from Robert Bresson’s A MAN ESCAPED to Jafar Panahi’s THE MIRROR, from Olivier Assayas’s COLD WATER to François Truffaut’s SMALL CHANGE, from Ulu Grosbard’s STRAIGHT TIME to Ralph Bakshi’s HEAVY TRAFFIC, and from Woody Allen’s HUSBANDS AND WIVES to Elaine May’s MIKEY AND NICKY. Of course, the brothers have also included their own DADDY LONGLEGS and Red Bucket Shorts and will be on hand to introduce several of the screenings, including the 6:30 showing of LITTLE OTIK.