REVIEW KING LEAR

William Shakespeare’s “King Lear” is the greatest tragedy. It comes to Broadway with the mighty brilliant and extraordinary Glenda Jackson. She appeared in the same title role at London's Old Vic in 2016. We are blessed to have her here in New York now.

The story of King Lear is the tragedy of an old and weary king who decides to retire and just live with his daughters. He has three daughters, Goneril (Elizabeth Marvel), Regan (Aisling O'Sullivan) and Cordelia (Ruth Wilson) and he wants to divide his kingdom amongst them with a condition. They must declare their love for him openly and in front of everyone. Goneril and Regan uses flowery language and praise him to the heavens but Cordelia the youngest and the most sincere daughter speaks the truth and tells him that she will love him as much as a daughter should love her father who brought her up, loved and fed her, and nothing more. The king is outraged and banishes her. The Earl of Kent (John Douglas Thompson) who wants to speak on Cordelia's behalf is also banished.

King Lear's daughters show their ugly faces and intent eventually. They treat the old king abominably, reduce his staff from one hundred men to almost one. This causes him to storm out on one of the worst stormy nights. The king is now homeless on a heath soaked by the rain and hail. He is only accompanied by his fool (Ruth Wilson in a double role) and the Earl of Kent disguised as a servant, who takes him to a cave for shelter. Also in the cave are the King’s old friend the Earl of Gloucester (Jayne Houdyshell) who is also abandoned and unbeknownst to Gloucester is his legitimate son Edgar in the guise of Mad Tom (Sean Carvajal).

King Lear's tragedy unfolds by making one foolish mistake to satisfy his royal ego and he now realizes how big a mistake it was and how he banished his young and loving daughter Cordelia for not flattering him falsely. Eventually Cordelia who is married to the king of France comes back to rescue her father.

I cherish this play, but not the way it has been staged here. The play is directed by San Gold who loves to overcrowd the stage. There are tables, chairs, flags, even a life size ceramic Lion near Lears throne and roaming musicians.

Lear's staff is sipping tea and drinking champagne all along, and I am wondering: What's the occasion? What are they celebrating?

All this stage business doesn't work. Actually it distracts.

But luckily we have Glenda Jackson here who surmounts every obstacle and howls like a tiger herself with such clarity and control and concentration that we need no other fake lion for effects.

Every word Ms. Jackson speaks is like jewels and pearls coming out of her mouth. She is small and very fragile but her performance is the most powerful I have ever seen on any stage in the world. I am amazed that she is not nominated for a Tony award.

Other actors who give wonderful performances are, John Douglas Thompson, Ruth Wilson in both roles and Jayne Houdyshell.

Elizabeth Marvel and Aisling O' Sullivan are not very convincing as real sisters
because of their varied accents.

The production also has a string quartet with original music by Philip Glass. This is totally unnecessary.

But once again, the biggest problem for me in this production is the set. The stage is so loaded with extra stuff that if Glenda Jackson wasn't a powerhouse we will never find her, she would be hidden behind the lion. But how can one hide a real lion of talent behind a fake ceramic one?

This is the third time I have seen Ms. Jackson on stage, “Strange Interlude”, “Three Tall Women” and now in” King Lear” as Lear and Oh! boy, I am a real lucky and blessed woman.
Beyond HAPPY FACE for Glenda Jackson and MIXED FACE for the production.

REVIEW : 17 BORDER CROSSINGS

 In, "17 BORDER CROSSINGS" Thaddeus Phillips, performer/writer/traveller speaks many languages such as Spanish, French, Portuguese,Czech which is a great ability and a source of convenience while covering extensive travels in many parts of the world where all these languages come in handy.

Mr. Phillips is on an almost bare stage with the exception of a desk and a chair which he uses very effectively in different scenes and in different parts of the world, but the way the show is written, performed and directed, there is no hint of the purpose of his travels.

Are these pleasure trips? Is he a journalist? Travelling on behalf of a company who is paying all the expenses? I assumed that these trips must be holidays.

Also it is not clear if the character he created is travelling or Thaddeus, the writer himself is the traveller? And if this show is autobiographical I would be curious to find out what kind of job Mr.Phillips has in order to pay for all those travels but I guess that's not the point of the show.

Concentrating on the title of the show, the show seems like it's about borders and border crossings and that's where the show has a problem.In today's world when we think about or talk about borders some kind of difficult feelings of anxiety and terror crosses our mind and we pray for safe crossing.

At this time of our lives the talk of border security and it's imagined difficulties, to say the least, is a reason sometimes for us not to go to the difficult parts of the world, but this writer/performer is ambitious and every time there is a hint of any difficulty at the border he just avoids expressing it or even encountering it. He just moves on to the next venture.

After a while the show seems like a showcase for different languages which the writer/performer speaks and we find that interesting and admirable but we want to face the reality of the times and encounter some kind of difficulty entering all these troubled places.

Everything in this show is light and somewhat amusing. Trust me, we don't want
the traveller to go through hell, but we do need to learn a bit more about serious issues dealing with so many border crossings.

Towards the end of his travels when he arrives at Newark airport, he is confronted by homeland security about a stamp on his passport from Cuba. He is detained for 6 hours...and then nothing. We are unable to know how he was released ?

Throughout the show we travel with him but don't learn much about the places we travel to and how difficult it is to cross all those borders.

Lighting design here is brilliant and so are the sound effects. Thaddeus Phillips is also a decent performer but the problem is in the conception of the show.
It needs a sense of danger.
MIXED LEADING TOWARDS ORDINARY except sound, lights and the bare set.

TRIAL OF MISS SURATT. REVIEW

BINA SHARIF:
The players in “The Trial of Mrs. Surratt” are already on stage when the audience enters. It's a huge cast of wandering players and they do wander around, jumping up and down on the benches, tables, running back and forth as if they are trying to catch a thief and yes, they are. They are trying to catch a murderer who shot president Lincoln and then ran away.

This play is mixed with historical facts (Not so clear) with fiction causing as much confusion as the wandering players trying to create chaos but instead are lost on stage. After a long time (Seems much longer ) the actors begin their dialogue.

For a while I thought this play is going to be a wordless experimental, performance piece. I was finally relieved when the words were spoken but most of the time I couldn't concentrate on the main action because there was lots of unnecessary secondary action taking place in the background.

The play should concentrate on Mrs. Surratt and the circumstances which made her a suspect in the Lincoln assassination. Mrs. Surratt was thought to have been sheltering rebel soldiers.

Her son, Johnny Surratt, was considered a suspect because he was friends to Booth. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t even in town when Lincoln was shot so Johnny made sure to stay away and elude capture.

Mary Surratt ( the most solid actress in the play) is persistent about her innocence but she is being tried not in the civil court but in an army tribunal where Judge Holt and the war secretary Edwin Stanton (another good actor) are determined to find her guilty from the very beginning.

Since the play has mixed up the facts and the fiction together my understanding of this particular play is not so precise either. There is lots of talk about Catholics not in a good way and I wondered if the assassin was a Catholic.

There were very strong impressions of John Wilkes Booth and his friends being gay. It doesn't matter if they were, but questions were raised which somehow can change the intention and the depiction of historical facts.

There were some good things in the show. I liked the music and the lights were very good but my main objection towards this show is that I couldn't concentrate on the words being spoken and I missed many important details in the play, but after the show, at the talk back the director informed us after I asked some questions about the distractions, she told us that the author didn't mind if we do miss some details because no matter what happens, the life still goes on.

I think there was too much life going on which was not so interesting after a while. I wish the author and the director concentrated more on the script and the real facts of the tragedy enfolding.
UNHAPPY FACE

ESTADO VEGETAL BY MANUELA IFANTE AT Baryshnikov Arts Center

ESTADO VEGETAL BY MANUELA INFANTE AT BAC, NYC

Director: Manuela Infante
Dramaturgy: Manuela Infante and Marcela Salinas
Performer; Marcela Salinas
Set, costume and ligting design: Rocio Hernandez
Voice recording: Pol del Sur
Production:  Carmina Infante

Chilean Director Manuela Infante deals with the Plant Intelligence and communication in this fascinating play, Estado Vegetal. The philosophy of plant intelligence and it's relationship with humans and other plants is based on Philosopher Michael Mardar's real world research.
The play is very experimental and at times the script is confusing.  There are some unexplored ideas
that, " stillness is better than movemments." and, "The trees have stronger will to stand still in the face of danger." Well! we also believe that to live, we have to move, motion and life are also connected.  But I do believe that the silent things such as the plants, trees and flowers do speak to us somehow by remaining silent and still at the same time.

Trees and their branches move with the wind, blossoms fall down on the ground when the rain and wind comes and cover the green grass with their beautiful magenta colors, they hiss and weep at their early fall.  So we do believe somehow that there is some kind of dialogue going on between the human beings and flora but to stage this concept and bring it to life to live audience can be difficult but not in this play because there is a stunning performer, Marcela Salinas who is so enormously talented that and fills the stage with her energy, her dedication and her craft that we forget all the philosophies and just watch her brilliance throughout the play.

This is how the experimental and dreamy story of Estado Vegetal goes. There is a motorcycle
accident crashing into a tree. Marcela Salinas, the actress plays multiple roles as the narrator, the grief
stricken mother of the young man who crashed into the tree, the manager incharge of green spaces, a gossipy aunt and a small girl who is a bit handicapped and mentally slow.

Salinas, a superb actress who portrys all these characters fully with her voice, her movements and
her facial expressions.  The play, vegetative state implies in a very poetic and visual way the advantages of plants and trees and their life compared at the same kind of level as people.
The play seems confusing but fascinating to watch.  It has great visuals and wonderfully complex sound design.  Salinas uses a looper pedal, records her own voice and play it back in different volumes. She arranges and rearranges the plants and at some point transform into one.
She is constantly moving around never out of whatever character she is playing.

The show is a very different but very satisfying because of the actress Marcela Salinas.  Her energy, her passion, her voice and her deep conviction about the characters she is playing is just marvelous.
Without understanding every bit of the script,  I really enjoyed the performance, the set, the sound
and the presence of so many green and beautiful plants on stage.

REVIEWED BY BINA SHARIF FOR artsinternational
Bina Saharif, Editor/publisher: artsinternational.blogspot.com
binashariff@gmail.com
Cell:212-260-6207
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"DIONYSUS WAS SUCH A NICE MAN" AT WILMA THEATER

"DIONYSUS WAS SUCH A NICE MAN" AT WILMA THEATER
Written by : kate Tarker
Directed by Dominique Serrand
Set by Kristen Robinson

"Dionysus was such a nice man" is kind of based on Greek Myth but it's content is much more contemporary except some names and refrences similar to the Greek classic mythology.
There is a family of a shepard Polybus (Luverne Seifert) his wife, Merope (Melanye Finister) his daughter, Alcinoe (Taysha Marie Conoles).  The shepard is mostly drunk, thus a refrence to Dionysus who was considered a god of wine. Alcinoe is not frustrated at the farm but still unhappy because she doesn't like what she sees in her family,  and Merope, the wife is pretty absurd in her exoticness.  It's a picture of a disfunctional family.  They were given a son in a basket,  Oedipus who disappeared at the age of 18 and the shepered decides to clebrate Oedipus who is now the king of Thebes to come home when shepered turns 50.

The whole story is not that clear and it's messy indeed.  The set doesn't help much.  The farmhouse is supposed to be on the top of a hill and the hill , the way it's designed is quite awkward.  We feel nervous for the actors when they try to slide down the hill. There is a rape trial as well. I guess the daughter had been raped  and the result of the trial is murky.
But the daughter likes to be at the farm beside all the other stuff surrounding her because to be the shepered's daughter is a higher credit.

Oedipus (Keith Conallen) does come back but he is blind now but still attracted to his mother
Merope.  The ending is tragic which is very much like Greek tragic myths, so one can say that there are symbols of greeks here.  The play tries very hard so does the actors but somehow we can't really concentrate on the story especially in the first act which is pretty scattered. I guess it can be tuned a bit with a bit of editing and a bit of clarity. I neverthe less really enjoyed the perforance of Melanye Finister in the role of Merope. She has great stage presence, good vocal ability and majestic movement skill and charming and exotic manner.  I would love to atch her in another play.
But I do enjoy Wilma theater's productions.  They mostly do wonders.  I have enjoyed a few shows
at this great theater in the past.

REVIEWED BY BINA SHARIF FOR artsinternational
BINA SHARIF, EDITOR/PUBLISHE: artsinternational.blogspot.com
binashariff@gmail.com
Cell: 212-260-6207
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EAT, DRINK & BE LITERARY AT BAM CAFE

EAT, DRINK & BE LITERARY AT BAM CAFE
Presented in Partnership with the National Book Foundation
Presents.

MIN JIN LEE

MIN JIN LEE,  a writer of enormous power concentrates mostly on topics such as immigration,
history of oppression, assimilation and migration.  She says that she is a classic introvert who reads
and reads a lot which creates a great feel for humanity especially the humanity which is mostly oppressed.  She states that, "In the history of oppression there is blunt trust in the person incharge."
She focuses on diaspora and human rights. That creates a sense and an obligation in any sensitive
writer or scholar to have their pen on the pulse of human condition and Min Jin Lee certainly has that
sensitivity and emapathy.

"My art has to reflect the moral justice that I believe in. I am interested in creating rdical empathy through art. That's the little task that I set for myself."

 And I believe it's not a little task, it's a huge undertaking.
  In Today's materialistic world, the word empathy and moral justice seem foreign.
Most of the people don't recognize those important words and a writer who doesn't deal with human condition which contains a sea of difficulties such as poverty, abandonment, lack of education, health,
racism, otherness of the outsider who remains an immigrant for ever  after decades of migration struggling to be part of society as a normal person, that writer is not deep enough or inclusive enough
 or sensitive enough and is not worth paying attention.

Min Jin Lee is obviously not that kind of a writer.  She is compassionate, concerned, sympathetic
and aware of the difficulties of survival of the people of diaspora.  She is sensitive towards different religions.  She told us the other night what's missing in secondary education. "In our secondary
education something is lacking in USA.  I am concerned about the lack of understanding of different religions especially Islam and I think if they have this subject as mendatory in secondary school it will help trmendously."
 Just her concern for this topic tells us how blessed we are to have writers ike Ms. Lee.

She is amazingly funny as well.  A writer who makes the invisible, very visible.  A writer who has the gift of feeling aother groups struggle of survival with equal amount of pathos and humor and how one can taste their culture throgh food.  After listening to her sentenes about,"Kimchi" I am now hungry for it and must go and taste it soon "I like my people and I want to write about them."
How wonderful is that? And how deeply honest.  This kind of simple, clean and effective language
makes a writer precious and I found her precious and special.

Min Jin Lee is a lawyer as well.  Her debut novel was, Free Food for Millionaires which won many awards and her novel, Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award and is Top 10 Books of the year for the New York Times.  She is a Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellow for 2018-19

In her question answer section she mentioned a novel named, Dictee by another Korean writer and
it was such an intersting coincident because a marathon reading of the whole novel was done this March at Performance Space NY in one day with at least 45 readers and I happened to be one of the
readers.  Amazing.  The author of Dictee was sadly murdered at a young age at the Puck building.
Two very different styles, two very different writers but the compassion and their skill to make their words so visual, powerful, effective and thought provoking is exactly the same.  I told her about this
reading of Dictee and she expressed lot of admiration and affection for the novel.

I am thrilled that I had the chance to hear three wonderful writers at this great event, Eat, Drink & Be
Literary and I shall wait for more next year, Inshallah (God willing)

WRITTEN
BY
BINA SHARIF
Editor/Pubisher: artsinernational.blogspot.com
binashariff@gmail.com
Cell: 212-260-6207
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