John Gabriel Borkman

Fiona Shaw's performance was a disappointment. A shrill, monochord delivery. Not that she's lost her acting skills, but looks like she's been directed to do so, as Lindsay Duncan's delivery is also stylized: every line is drawled and drawn. But Lindsay manages to do more out of the role. Cleverly, she lets go of the drawl as the play progress. The men do their bits. They all try, and have talent, but the play is a hard nut to crack. A tedious affair, portentous from start to finish. The characters don't evolve, nothing much happens. The director manages to squeeze the most comic relief available.

The only actor who really pulls it off, Cathy Belton, plays Mrs Wilton. She has all the fun: sex, a young lover, possibly another young innocent female lover, money, looks, youth. She is so content when she's on stage, we were hoping she'd take us away from the play, along with the son of the house. The other characters are dire. John Gabriel Borkman worse then the women? Yes, a bit, because he suffers from primal sexism.

If the play is to be staged, best bet would probably be to go for the guts spilled out on stage, method acting, dark dark humanity.

The set by Tom Pye is spectacular. The ground icy brilliant. Snow in the background threatening to invade, a symbol of the cold that grips the hearts of the characters. Didn't get why they had snowed in cars on the stage, though. Joking. Anyone who was coming from Brooklyn's streets would read the snow boulders in the back as cars whose owners haven't had the courage to dig out.

Still, the audience liked it. After some of the memorable performances of Fiona Shaw we've seen at BAM, it's not surprising. They were showing their loyalty. A feeling that has a lot of say for itself.

http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=2649

In the photo below, the set is slightly different. We saw an improved version, without the wall, the snow is literally everywhere. But it was the photo I found where you best saw the cars parked around the house!

Not a review -  by Arabella Hutter

Dans l'esprit d'Edouard Glissant

Communiqué par Afriqua Paris:

Ceaucescu in New York

 At the NY Romanian Film Festival the opening night film was "The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu". 3 hrs. All archive footage, without narrator, that was shot to serve as propaganda for the government, if it can be called that.. Riveting. Intelligent: so well constructed. Long, it felt like we had to suffer for the long years of his dictatorship.

Most heart wrenching moment: an old committee member - he must have learned he was suffering from a terminal disease which freed him of any desire to stay alive - challenges Ceausescu's changes to the Romanian constitution. The hundreds of members of the Congress are dumb with stupefaction for a short moment. Suspense. An opportunity for the whole Congress to rise and oppose Ceausescu. Sheep, they choose safety: they start heckling and booing the heroic old man.

Most delightful moment: the government's glitterati dancing in the huge palace dancehall to Sonny Curtis "I fought the law and the law won".

Interesting to see the quality of the images evolving, from a pristine black and white film to muddier color film to even muddier first video images. The government was documenting all events with a huge amount of media coverage.

Some of our Romanian friends expressed after the screening that they were surprised to discover Ceaucescu had a sense of humour, through some of the private scenes in the film.

Sad that his trial was as much as monkey trial as any in the Eastern block.

No conclusion. One more conclusionless entry.

Here's the link to the Romanian Film Festival: check it out if you're not - and all the more if you are - familiar with the Romanian Cinema New Wave.

www.icrny.org

Contributed by  - -  Arabella Hutter

Ed Schmidt's "My Last Play" in Brooklyn

Ed's announcement for "My Last Play"

Went to see Ed Schmidt's show last night: My Last Play. Here's what he says about it:

"After 32 years of playwriting, at the age of 48, I am walking away from the theater, and, in the process, giving away all of my 2000+ theater books. One book at a time. At the end of the performance, each audience member walks out with any book off my shelves. The run of the play will end when my bookshelves are bare."

www.mylastplay.net

I don't know many performers with as much gut as Ed. That's why I'm a fan. I can't do anything in front of an audience, I'm not even good at spilling for an audience of one. He's into taking a lot of risk, and that pays off.

Actors are usually protected from the audience by a set of conventions:  usually the actors, up on a stage, pretend to be other people, in a different place, with a different time frame.

Meanwhile Ed is in his home, plays himself, sees everyone, knows some of the audience personally,. He breaks the barriers in every possible way. And he manages to be poignant and touching and all sorts of emotions which are so hard to bring about, and make good theater.

I was still mulling over the show later that night, my thoughts distracting me from reading Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, which I think is highly complimentary to Ed.

I often love or hate stuff, not a lot of in between, not a lot of grey area. I'll grant that. Some of Ed's tone is a bit unctuous, his language could be simpler, more direct. I'm writing this, to show I'm not on payroll.

As a reminder, this is not a review: I've become deeply suspicious of criticism. No introduction no conclusion. As Ed deconstructs theater I deconstruct the review.

But I'm managing to get this entry out before the review in the New York Times, which tickles pleasantly.

John and I each left clasping one of Ed's books, stamped "My Last Play": The Marriage by Gobromowicz and Collected Plays of Beckett. We'll keep them preciously. Unless their value goes up irresistibly.

I forgot to take a pic.


Contributed by  - -  Arabella Hutter

Talk about transparency

“I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that

Lord Macaulay

I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation”. - Lord McCauley in his speech of Feb 2, 1835, British Parliament.

What I find extraordinary in the passage, and paradoxical, is Macaulay's respect for Indian civilization. His reaction is far from the typical European 19th century paternalism towards other cultures. His response: crush it. Well, nice try, but I don't think you succeeded, mylord.

Below's Animesh Rai's nuanced approach to the subject of English impact in India, as a comment to the passage by Macaulay. From his book "The Legacy of French Rule in India", p.145:

"The current Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in an acceptance speech at his alma mater, Cambridge University, very aptly stated that English in India was seen as just another Indian language.[1] While not entirely condoning the impact of British colonialism, he admitted that one of the beneficial aspects of the British Raj was Indians’ accessibility to English language and literature even though the English spoken in India may not be recognized by the former British colonizers as it is an indigenized version of the language. He also stated that many other countries in the world had also adapted English to their milieu. In an article analyzing Manmohan Singh’s speech, N.S. Jagannathan states that Macaulay is not well perceived among patriotic Indians due to his ill-informed denigration of Indians’ literary and intellectual heritage. However, Jagannathan admits that Macaulay was instrumental in inducting English into the educational apparatus of Indians as much as he was in the codification of civil and criminal law and the law of evidence."


[1] “Carry on Doctor Singh” by N.S. Jagannathan, The New Sunday Express Magazine (The New Indian Express), August 7, 2005, p. II.

Contributed by  - -  Arabella Hutter & Animesh Rai

"From Chaos to Classicism", and back?

Judgment of Paris, Ivo Saliger, Nazi painter

It's incredible what a difference good curation will do. Is that what it's called, curation? Of course, I've been aware of this fact before, as in the exhibition "Les magiciens de la terre" at the Centre Pompidou, many years ago, which juxtaposed in the same space works by contemporary occidental artists - "Modern Art", with that of non occidental artists - "Indigenous Art". And demonstrated brilliantly that it's one and the same thing.
(The images are not from the exhibition, except for the painting by Balthus)

Testa - Mario Sironi

From Chaos to Classicism is deeply troubling. Here the juxtaposition of works by mainstream 20th century artists with fascistic works is very upsetting. Some of the latter are herrendous, almost laughable (check Paris in Brown Shirt outfit above), badly executed, clearly expressing an extreme political position endossing supremacy, submission, intolerance and other fascist values. These are not too upsetting, and have the advantage of reminding us that we have to be on alert, to look out and fight the resurgence of political movements which promote all or some of these values. Other works are more upsetting. For example those of artists (that's what they're called too, right?) who worked for fascism, in particular for Mussolini who supported some forms of art at the beginning of his government. Some of them are quite beautiful. The artist Mario Sironi was a cofounder of the Italian futurist movement who went on to promote fascism. Are his paintings acceptable before he joined the fascist movement? What about after? Should they be shown? And what about the works which are fullblown nazi and clearly horrible pieces of art, should they be preserved for posterity, as they have been in various museums? 

La famiglia - Mario Sironi

Mother and Child - Picasso

The other upsetting works were those of the artists we have learned to celebrate such as Picasso, De Chirico, Balthus. Their paintings were sometimes very close to clearly fascist works, showing how a movement can be born and influence even the more progressive part of society, and its creators. That also rings as a warning in these days and times of various brands of fundamentalism.

Street - Balthus

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/on-view/chaos-and-classicism

James Thierrée and/is Raoul

My son is taught in his school how to write an essay: an introduction, a meatier middle with details and quotes, a conclusion. Thankfully this is a blog entry where everything is permissible. In no particular order but my fancy:

To me -
Raoul is James Thierrée's best show so far at BAM. By far.

His previous shows were esthetic, and had magic, but were not always buoyant with meaning. The form he has developed does come from circus which resolutely skirts any depth to provide weightless entertainment. And there's something to be said for that. Thierrée's new show manages to retain the acrobatics and antics of the circus and combine them with the expressivity of theater.

In Raoul, Thierrée dwells on the human condition. There's not much of a story, no linear narrative. As in life. At times, he waits for something to happen. We wait too. We wait together. Then nothing much happens.

An aspect of our human condition is control, which is a subject that I have been interested in, along with certainty, nostalgia, romanticism. Control of the body, control of the environment. His body gets out of control, whether his legs start running the other way, or his heart moves up and down his body. The joke is that as a performer, his control of movement is astounding. The loss of control of the environment is the base for many a circus jokes. He takes it further. The environment is entitled to escape human control. It subverts human narcissism.

The pure joy of James Thierrée expressing himself with an orchestra playing out of his mouth.

The pure joy of James Thierrée becoming double onstage under our very own eyes. He was one, then he's two. Trickster.

He gets away with doing the ultra cliché slo mo miming. I was astounded, I would have thought that was an impossibility. The beautiful, abstracted movements fit into the whole mood of the piece.

James Thierrée seems to make references to some of his grandfather's iconic movements, without becoming referential. A delight. Charlie Chaplin was a master when it came to not being in control.

In the end his humility, his utter commitment as a performer, his imagination, his lightness of body and soul is incredibly touching. The audience was rapt. James Thierrée gave a last dance of joy, the joy of being appreciated by its audience as the applause went on and on.

About imagery but not a conclusion to entry, see note about not a school essay:
The imagery Thierrée favors is popular with many creators, mainly European. Dust. Red velvet. Old toys, including mechanical birds. Mechanical anything for that matter. long skinny shapes, made out of metal. Spider webs. Derelict rooms. Moth eaten lace. Morbid. Quaint. Spooky. Feels a lot like grandma's attic, associated with the emotions a child might feel there: curiosity, fear, tenderness, loneliness. Plastic, modern technology, bright colors are proscribed. It gets a bit repetitive, as a vocabulary, something that would appeal to teenagers because it's easy and flattering.

Delicatessen, the film by Jeunot

A still from a film by the Quay brothers

Still from a Jan Svanmakjer film

A still from  a film by Jan Svankmajer

The Quay brothers

Animesh Rai muses as he reads Glissant

From Animesh Rai, who has written entries previously on this blog, about the French presence in India, creolization and Glissant of course, here are his thoughts as he further studies this great writer philosopher.

In my current situation, my reading and re-reading of Glissant, in particular some of his theoretical essays in their original French versions such as Le Discours Antillais, Poétique de la Relation and Faulkner, Mississippi makes me feel like someone solving a gigantic jigsaw puzzle: bit by bit, things seem to fall into place.  Referring to my previous entry regarding

Work of Victor Anicet, artist from Martinique

Glissant on this blog, these readings are enabling me to simultaneously synthesize my earlier interactions with him, my thesis work and an overwhelming urge to understand the bearing and implications of his theories on the world stage.  While trying to take a full measure of it however partial it may be, I am struck at the same time by an exhilaration at the beauty of the writing which is not just elegantly poetic but analytic as well as synthetic in terms of the illuminating comprehension which it provides and perhaps as importantly, if not more, of the incisive questions which it raises and by a certain overpowering dizziness or giddiness best summarized by the word vertige in French. The result is an ensuing combination of sheer joy as well as exhaustion for Glissant will not yield himself without a considerable amount of intellectual as well as imaginative effort on the part of the reader.


Contributed by Animesh Rai
Published by Arabella Hutter

For more contributions from Animesh Rai, go to:

http://bilingualblogbilingue.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

http://bilingualblogbilingue.blogspot.com/2009/12/lintroduction-dedouard-glissant-the.html

http://bilingualblogbilingue.blogspot.com/2009/12/animesh-rai-on-glissant.html

http://bilingualblogbilingue.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-about-wiles-from-animesh-rai.html

De la part du MCUR/From the MCUR

This blog has become invested in the support of the MCUR, as an institution which promotes the meeting of cultures as well as the preservation of various cultural heritages. Here is an announcement from its organizers for an event more than appropriate on this All Saints Day:

Ce blog s'intéresse au sort du MCUR, puisqu'il s'agit d'une institution dont un des buts est de favoriser les rencontres et échanges entre cultures. Voici un communiqué de ses organisateurs à propos d'une cérémonie plus qu'appropriée pour la Toussaint:

ASSOCIATION MCUR-RCA

( Recherche - Culture - Action)

  

Madam, Mésié,

Lo groupaz MCUR-CRA organiz lo 31 oktob 2010 in lomaz pou nout bann  zansèt lé mor san tonm. Lo sérénomi va espass dann simetièr « Père Lafosse Saint-Louis ». 9èr édmi apartir ziska midi.
Bann moune group « interreligieux » va di in fonnkèr, rant in lartis va shant in morso.

2^ème lané La MCUR-CRA i mèt an plas sérémoni la mémoir-la.
Nou atann aou pou vni tienbo ek nou, invit out lantouraz.

In gran mersi aou pou out dalonaz.

Madame, Monsieur,

L’Association MCUR-CRA organise le 31 octobre 2010 une cérémonie en hommage à nos ancêtres morts sans sépulture. La cérémonie se déroulera de 9h30 à 12 heures dans le cimetière du Père Lafosse à Saint-Louis. Vous êtes invité à participer à cette cérémonie, et à y faire participer vos amis, vos relations, vos collègues.

                                       Le Président,

Jean-Claude Carpanin Marimoutou

Mystery of the non identical, in fact non fraternal twins at BAM

I mentioned in the previous blog entry about Deerhouse (http://bit.ly/bdyV7z) catching eye of two remarkable young men at BAM after the show. And wondering whether they were part of the show. I found them! They're called Andrew and Andrew, they're an act, and here they are, giving a much more tolerant review of Persephone, at BAM.

Polite? Persephone

I respect the efforts of creative people. It's hard to come up with something new and put it out there. It takes a lot of work and perseverance. Therefore I am not going to expand too much on the new show "Persephone" at BAM, out of kindness.

When I went to see Deerhouse a few weeks back, I came back with a well of questions about art and shows. What is nonsense? Is there good faith in art? What's a review? What is certainty?

Last night at BAM no questions  came swirling in my mind. Apart from: how many more seconds do we give this show to prove that it has a tiny spark of intelligence before we walk out? A minute nugget of meaning?

Uh. The projections were rather pretty.

The deconstruction of the play with actors and director seen behind the scenes is heavy handed. One of Julia Stiles' first line is:" the audience's going to think it's stupid. This is Brooklyn." Well, if the actors start reviewing the play in the first 2 minutes of the show...

I'll try to stay positive. Some of the acting in Persephone was bearable. The costumes were really quite pretty. A column near where we sat would hide Demeter from view from time to time.

If I covered my ears with my hands, the sound was less loud, the music less bland.

Below is a link to two people, the writer and composer, trying to make a convincing case the show has a meaning. Actually Ben Neil doesn't seem so sure, but is putting on a brave front.

http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=2231

There is one puzzling question: how does such a show make it to BAM? It must be some kind of machinery that, once it gets going, can not be stopped: the show gets a famous actress. The writer has gotten recognition in the past. The show gets financial backing. The show takes a lot of effort to put together. And finally, as what might seem a necessary last stage, is shown and seen. It is unfortunate that no one had the wisdom to stop this production at any of its various stages.

The NY Times reviewer is trying to be even more polite that I have been:

http://theater.nytimes.com/2010/10/29/theater/reviews/29persephone.html?pagewanted=1

Back and forth between cultures

The trend this blog has taken toward multiculturalism delights me. I feel it has happened by itself, thanks to contributions and influences from various people such as Animesh Rai, Astou Arnould, M. Gobalakichenane, Dominique Aupiais, and of course, Edouard Glissant.

Here are just a few photographs from an exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, entitled Picturing The West: Yokohama Prints 1859-1870. It was forbidden for Japanese to travel outside Japan and the country was virtually closed to foreigners. In the mid19th century, trade was open with the West, and Westerners started traveling to Japan. Prints were in demand, picturing Westerners, as the Japanese were curious to find out what they were like. Some of the artists didn't actually see the foreigners, but inspired themselves from prints or from hearsay. An example of two cultures meeting and their cross fertilization. In the West the influence of many painters such as Van Gogh and Matisse by Asian art, and particularly Japanese print, is well known. It's interesting to see the reverse, and, as often in this situation, how people can project their fantasies onto the unknown other. I don't know how many American women from the Victorian era would have recognized themselves in the amazon galloping on a fierce horse through the snow, but what a beautiful image of wild femininity! It is in fact astounding to see how the image resembles Art Déco which would flourish decades later. Ironically as the influence from Asian art defined to some extent this early 20th century art movement, the Japanese touch in this depiction of a Western woman produced an Art Déco image before that movement existed.

http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/407.html

An American Lady

American women were often portrayed with this head crown which

might have been inspired by native American head dress.

The images below show European prints which are not part of the Philadelphia Museum exhibit, just to show the interesting parallel between a Japanese print with Western influence, and European prints with Japanese influence. 

TT

An English couple

A Russian couple

A French couple - with a bottle!

An American city

Paris 

This blog offers more images and more information about this period:

http://community.livejournal.com/steamfashion/1062296.html

Contributed by  - -  Arabella Hutter

The Secret of the Mysterious False Twins

Went to see the Deer House at BAM.
 http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=2227
Will not expand on this much.  The reviews have not been good in Europe and BAM was practically paying people to see the show. Have never had seating that good for such a low price! Nonetheless I was intrigued by the show. By its mix of tones, something I have become very interested in. While I watched the show, many questions swirled in my head, and to that extent the show was successful if art is also about getting one out comfort zone. What is tone? What is nonsense (the show veered in that direction)? What is fraudulent (also in that direction)? What is a critic and a review? "The show was this and not that, it was successful in this and failed in that." Assertions. Certainty. The more I go the more uncertain I get. It takes more confidence - maybe - sometimes - to admit uncertainty than to bang on the table to assert opinions.

After the show two guys were ferreting around the lobby. Look: 50's dork. They had exactly the same jeans jacket with a label on the back, the same hair cut (see illustration), same docker jeans, same leather bags, same glasses with thick upper frame, known in England as National Health as they were the only model offered free to patients for several decades. Their faces looked the same. I had to look twice to ascertain they were not twins. One was taller. Brothers? Lovers? Performers? One of them would be a geek, two is a performance or a statement. Anybody knows them, please let me know ASAP. Because the show had been chaotic and sent me into a cycle of questioning and confusion, I wasn't sure if they were real. But I was hugely amused. Then a guy from the bus service to Manhattan (you will be wheezed from Manhattan to BAM and back without setting foot in Brooklyn practically! Smoked windows allows you to ignore ugly reality out there!) leaned in my direction and said loudly : "What a smile!". He was also part of the show? Was I? Was Brooklyn?

Contributed by  - -  Arabella Hutter  - -

Rencontres Afriqua Paris

Astou Arnould nous communique le programme remarquable d'octobre des Rencontres Afriqua Paris. Je ne sais pas si je pourrai faire un saut par dessus de l'Atlantique et y assister, mais j'en ai bien envie...

Publié par  - -  Arabella Hutter

Festival Les Instants Vidéo 23rd edition | digitalarti.com

Un festival dans l'esprit de Glissant, à Marseille:

Festival Les Instants Vidéo 23rd edition | digitalarti.com