Tag Archives: brooklyn academy of music

RIVER OF FUNDAMENT

Matthew Barney’s five-and-a-half-hour epic debuts at BAM this week (photo by Hugo Glendinning)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
February 12-16, $25-$50
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

“Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state. I do not know who I am. Nor what I was. I cannot hear a sound. Pain is near that will be like no pain felt before,” Norman Mailer writes at the beginning of his 1983 novel, Ancient Evenings. “Is this the fear that holds the universe? Is pain the fundament? All the rivers veins of pain? The oceans my mind awash? I have a thirst like the heat of earth on fire. Mountains writhe. I see waves of flame. Washes, flashes, flashes, waves of flame.” New York-based visual artist Matthew Barney and Berlin-based composer and musician Jonathan Bepler have transformed Mailer’s seven-hundred-page epic about death and rebirth in Egypt into the five-and-a-half-hour cinematic spectacle River of Fundament, which is making its debut February 12-16 at the BAM Harvey. In his five-part, seven-hour Cremaster Cycle, Barney explored the ascension and descension of the cremaster muscle, which determines sexual differentiation, with a cast that included Mailer as Harry Houdini and Barney as Gary Gilmore in a section inspired by Mailer’s book The Executioner’s Song while focusing on cars and petroleum jelly in others.

RIVER OF FUNDAMENT is built around episodes in Los Angeles, Brooklyn, and Detroit (photo by Ivano Grasso)

River of Fundament begins with Mailer’s wake at an intricate reconstruction of his Brooklyn Heights home, with Mailer’s son John Buffalo Mailer playing his father’s spirit. The second act follows the reincarnation of Mailer (Milford Graves) as he is born in the River of Feces and meets medium Hathfertiti (Maggie Gyllenhaal). The third act returns to Brooklyn, with Mailer’s next reincarnation played by a 2001 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor and Ellen Burstyn taking over as Hathfertiti. The primary cast also features Paul Giamatti, Cremaster star Aimee Mullins, Elaine Stritch, Lila Downs, Chief Dave Beautiful Bald Eagle, Joan La Barbara, and Madyn G. Coakley, with a multitude of cameos by Dick Cavett, Luc Sante, Larry Holmes, Salman Rushdie, Lawrence Weiner, Fran Lebowitz, Marti Domination, James Toback, David Amram, and dozens of others.

Cars once again are featured prominently in epic new Matthew Barney film (photo by Ivano Grasso)

The action, much of which consists of filmed performance art presentations that were held in public spaces, moves from New York City to Los Angeles to Detroit as Egyptian mythology and ritual play out in unusual ways. Barney, whose multidisciplinary Cremaster exhibition at the Guggenheim in 2002-3 was one of the best of the decade, has given New Yorkers a sneak peek at the making of River of Fundament via the ”DJED” show at the Gladstone Gallery in the fall of 2011 and the wide ranging ”Subliming Vessel” at the Morgan Library last summer. Not that they gave any real indication of what to expect, because with Barney, the only thing to expect is the unexpected. And even then, don’t expect to understand what is unfurling before you.

KING LEAR

Frank Langella stars as a physically powerful Lear at BAM (photo by Richard Termine)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
Through February 9, $25-$125
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Bayonne-born Frank Langella has some rather big shoes to fill as he steps onto the stage as King Lear at BAM’s Harvey Theater, site of two recent memorable productions, the 2007 Royal Shakespeare Company version starring Sir Ian McKellen and the 2011 presentation from the Donmar Warehouse boasting Sir Derek Jacobi in the title role. But the three-time Tony winner is more than up to the task in the Chichester Festival Theatre’s intense production of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy. Although there’s a sizable hitch in his gait when he first appears, hunched over a bit, Langella’s Lear is no feeble king at the start. There’s a strength and power to his body, the way he raises his arms and sits on the throne, that belies his seventy-six years. (In comparison, McKellen was sixty-eight when he played Lear at BAM, Jacobi seventy-four.) As he asks his daughters, Cordelia (Isabella Laughland), Goneril (Catherine McCormack), and Regan (Lauren O’Neil), to declare their love for him in return for their share of his kingdom, it’s clear Lear has not gone over the edge quite yet, even as he rails against his former favorite, Cordelia, who can only say she loves him as any daughter loves a father. But he soon feels his faculties starting to slip, begging the fool (a terrific Harry Melling), “Oh, don’t let me go mad; not mad, sweet heaven! Keep me sane. I don’t want to be mad!” But it’s too late. When Lear comes out for the second act, in tattered clothes and barefoot, wearing a ridiculous straw hat, it’s clear there’s no return from his downward spiral.

The fool (Harry Melling) and Kent (Steven Pacey) hold on to the king (Frank Langella) during brutal storm (photo by Richard Termine)

The closest Langella, who has not done a lot of Shakespeare in his long career, previously came to Lear was when Lee J. Cobb was playing the ill-fated king in 1968 at the Vivian Beaumont, in repertory with William Gibson’s A Cry of Players, in which Langella appeared as the Bard. But now that he has taken on the role himself, he attacks it with a hunger that energizes director Angus Jackson’s streamlined production. Robert Innes Hopkins’s spare set is backed by large wooden beams, some teetering, as if about to fall, like Lear. During the storm, a hard rain pours over Lear, bathed in a stunning blue light, the fool holding on to him as if trying to prevent him from melting away right then and there. Max Bennett is a splendidly conniving Edmund, while Sebastian Armesto excels as he transforms from the wronged Edgar to the wild creature Tom, leading his blinded father, Gloucester (Denis Conway), to his apparent doom. Langella’s early sturdiness makes his tragic fall all the more heartbreaking as he cradles Cordelia at the end, his body weak and frail, his mind realizing just what he’s done. It’s another memorable moment in yet another memorable Lear at the Harvey.

MLK DAY 2014

MLK Day features a host of special events and community-based service projects throughout the city (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple venues
Monday, January 21
www.mlkday.gov

In 1983, the third Monday in January was officially recognized as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, honoring the birthday of the civil rights leader who was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Dr. King would have turned eighty-five this month, and you can celebrate his legacy tomorrow by participating in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service project or attending one of several special events taking place around the city. BAM’s twenty-eighth annual free Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. includes a keynote speech by Angela Davis, live performances by José James and the Christian Cultural Center Choir, the NYCHA Saratoga Village Community Center student exhibit “Picture the Dream,” and a screening of Shola Lynch’s 2012 documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners. The JCC in Manhattan will host an MLK Day blood drive and “The Living Legacy of Dr. King,” consisting of the panel discussion “Leading a Socially Responsible Life” with Ruth Messinger, Harrie Bakst, and Rabbi Joanna Samuels, interactive workshops for teens, and the “Artists Celebrate the Living Legacy of Dr. King” performance with Judith Sloan, Susannah Heschel, and Joshua Nelson, the Prince of Kosher Gospel. (Admission is free but preregistration is recommended.)

The Museum of the Moving Image is screening THE NEGRO AND THE AMERICAN PROMISE on MLK Day

The Museum of the Moving Image will be open on MLK Day, with two screenings of the 1963 documentary The Negro and the American Promise as part of its “Changing the Picture” series (free with museum admission). The Children’s Museum of Manhattan will teach kids about King’s legacy with the “Martin’s Mosaic” workshop, the “Heroic Heroines: Ruby Bridges” book talk, and live performances by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem All Stars Band, while the Brooklyn Children’s Museum has such special hands-on crafts programs as “Let’s March!,” “Let’s Join Hands,” and “Dream Clouds” and live music from the Berean Community Drumline. And the Museum at Eldridge Street will be hosting a free reading of Eloise Greenfield and Jan Spivey Gilchrist’s picture book The Great Migration: Journey to the North.

NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL: NOSFERATU

Grzegorz Jarzyna’s unique take on the Dracula legend will keep trying to wake the audience up at BAM through November 2 (photo by Stefan Okolowicz)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
Through November 2, $20-$65
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Somehow, in trying to create a fresh new way for audiences to experience the familiar vampire tale of Nosferatu, aka Dracula, theater master Grzegorz Jarzyna ended up with an absurdly slow-paced and downright dull production. Running at the BAM Harvey through November 2, TR Warszawa and Teatr Narodowy’s multimedia Nosferatu starts out well enough, establishing a contemporary social context while introducing the main characters in a large room with three floor-to-ceiling oval windows, two beds, a long table, and numerous mirrors with drastically different reflective qualities. But after a lively beginning, things slow down to sleep-inducing levels as a bland vampire preys on this small group of friends who at first discuss science, religion, fear, and death in intriguing, nonlinear ways before things give way to frustration, confusion, and boredom. Jarzyna, who has adapted such other works as Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus, Thomas Vinterberg’s Festen, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, and, together, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Molière’s Don Juan, sucks the life out of the vampire legend over the course of 110 intermissionless, interminable minutes, leaving behind little more than smoke and mirrors.

NEXT WAVE THEATER: NOSFERATU

Grzegorz Jarzyna adds to the vampire legend in multimedia NOSFERATU running this week at BAM (photo by Stefan Okolowicz)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
October 30 – November 2, $20-$65
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Halloween is quickly upon us, so arts organizations across the city are turning to horror to try to scare the hell out of us this week. Over at BAM, you can catch the frightening “Puppets on Film” series, which includes Godzilla, Aliens, and the terrifying The Great Muppet Caper; Alfred Hitchcock’s Family Plot and The Lodger, the latter with live music by Morricone Youth; and the twelfth annual BAMboo!, a free, child-friendly block party with music, candy, games, workshops, and more. But the strangest of them all is likely to be TR Warszawa and Teatr Narodowy’s multimedia production of Nosferatu, inspired by Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula — which was also the inspiration for F. W. Murnau’s 1922 horror classic, Nosferatu, a film that had to change its title, character names, and plot details because the Stoker family would not authorize the rights. Written and directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna, who brought Thomas Vinterberg’s Dogme 95 film The Celebration to mesmerizing life as Festen at St. Ann’s Warehouse last year, Nosferatu has an original score by John Zorn, with sets and costumes by Magdalena Maciejewska, lighting by Jacqueline Sobiszewski, and video design by Bartek Macias. The cast consists of Sandra Korzeniak, Katarzyna Warnke, Wolfgang Michael, Jan Englert, Jan Frycz, Krzysztof Franieczek, Marcin Hycnar, Lech Łotocki, and Adam Woronowicz. The show runs October 30 through November 2 at the BAM Harvey; on November 1 at 6:00 in the Hillman Attic Studio ($15), New Yorker journalist Joan Acocella will give the related talk “On Vampires.” In addition, Film Forum is showing Werner Herzog’s remake Nosferatu the Vampyre through November 7, with a bonus screening of Murnau’s original on November 4 at 7:30.

TIFFANY MILLS COMPANY: BERRIES AND BULLS / THE FEAST (PART 1)

Petra van Noort, Jeffrey Duval, and Kevin Ho (photo © Julie Lemberger, 2013)

Petra van Noort, Jeffrey Duval, and Kevin Ho will be part of world premiere of BERRIES AND BULLS at BAM (photo © Julie Lemberger, 2013)

BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
May 30 – June 2, $20
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.tiffanymillscompany.org

Over the last few years, the New York-based Tiffany Mills Company has been developing Berries and Bulls, an hour-long piece that incorporates movement and text in exploring long-term relationships, performed by four dancers. Early versions of the work were presented at Dance New Amsterdam in 2010 and the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2012, but Mills has now expanded Berries and Bulls, with the world premiere of the new production taking place at BAM’s Fishman Space May 30 through June 2, featuring the original quartet (Jeffrey Duval, Kevin Ho, Emily Pope-Blackman, and Petra van Noort) along with an additional ten guest dancers (Einy Am, Lucie Baker, Ching-I Chang, John Hoobyar, Elise Knudson, Nikolas Owens, Hannah Seidel, Kensaku Shinohara, Simon Thomas-Train, and Mei Yamanaka). The text is by Dr. Peter Petralia, the founding artistic director of the British-based experimental, multidisciplinary Proto-type Theater, with a new set by Brooklyn-based visual artist Ian Trask. Also on the program is The Feast (Part 1), which examines the human condition through abundance and scarcity, nourishment and starvation, performed by five dancers and set to an original score by Jonathan Melville Pratt, with the audience involved in creating the space. Berries and Bulls and The Feast (Part 1) are part of BAM’s Professional Development Program, a collaboration with the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center that benefits nonprofit arts organizations.

THE MASTER BUILDER

Wrenn Schmidt and John Turturro try to build an unusual relationship in Andrei Belgrader’s new version of 1892 Ibsen play (photo by Stephanie Berger)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
Through June 9, $25-$90
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

A stark coldness pervades Andrei Belgrader’s new version of Henrik Ibsen’s most autobiographical play, The Master Builder. Collaborating once again with John Turturro — the two previously worked together on a terrific production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame at BAM in 2008 and on Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at Classic Stage this past fall/winter, Belgrader uses David Edgar’s recent streamlined, modernized translation in telling the story of a star Norwegian architect who knows how to build buildings but can’t manage to keep his life from falling apart around him. Turturro plays the title character, Halvard Solness, a mean-spirited, philandering megalomaniac who is refusing to allow his dying mentor, Knut Brovik (Julian Gamble), the opportunity to see his architect son, Ragnar (Max Gordon Moore), succeed in any way before the father dies. Halvard also flirts terribly with his secretary, Kaja Fosli (Kelly Hutchinson), even though she is engaged to Ragnar. Meanwhile, Halvard’s wife, Aline (Katherine Borowitz, Turturro’s real-life wife), wanders through Santo Loquasto’s latticed-metal set like a ghost, never having recovered from a family tragedy. “I am the way I am. I can’t remake myself,” Halvard says at one point, but he does go through a change upon the arrival of Hilde Wangel (Wrenn Schmidt), a sexy fairy-tale-like nymph who claims that Halvard promised himself to her ten years earlier, when she was a mere thirteen. He is of course smitten with her, leading to yet more complications. But just as Halvard clearly differentiates between “a house, but not a home,” this Master Builder never climbs the heights it aspires to. Turturro is too blustery and Schmidt (Katie Roche, Boardwalk Empire) too chirpy (and chippy), while the production as a whole never quite develops a solid foundation, its structure too loose and disconnected, in need of some further construction.