SWAN LAKE/ Loch na hEla at BAM

                                   Rachel Poirier in "Swan Lake/Loch na hEala" at BAM

NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

AT BAM

Swan LaKe/Loch na hEala

Written, Choreographed and Directed

By

Michael Keegan-Dolan : A dance and theater piece

The very first scene of this fascinating play has a man with a rope tied to his neck which is tethered

to a cinder block.  The man moves around in circles and makes noises as if he had been turned into

a goat.  At least that's how I saw it and immediately related this scene to the Irish suffering and persecution for thousand upon thousands of years.  For me that was a metaphor for human torture

in Ireland.

This man/goat is played by Mikel Murfi.  He is only in his underwear paces around agonizingly.

Then after a while three men dressed in black clothes and black hats come near him and dance around making the

so called animal extremely un-comfortable.  As they come too close to him he is extremely frightened and he cries and make shrilled noises, then the three men called, Watchers grab hold of him, lay him down, pour water on him (It made me feel like water torture) but actually they were giving him a mini  bath and then giving him a tough massage with red towels, the color of blood , dress him up and make him sit down on a chair. Then he asks for a cup of tea.  "I won't say a word until I have a cup of tea."  I loved that, he must be so cold.  He starts to tell us a story of Jimmy O' Reiilly (Alexander Leonhartsberger) who had been extremely depressed since the death of his father and his mother who in a Wheelchair  Nancy ( Elizabeth Cameron Dalman ) gives him his late  father's loaded gun for his 36th birthday after her repeated failed efforts for him to get out of his sunken state and meet some woman.

This Swan Lake has no resemblance to Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake but it has the most incredible music

by the Dublin band Slow Moving Clouds. It's performed live by three musicians.  It is hypnotic, and stirring with an Irish dirge which creates incredible sense of desire as well as sadness of the incompletion of that very desire. I looked to buy a CD of this haunting music in the lobby afterwards but there was none being sold. While I was listening to this beautiful music which creates a feeling of longing, an ever lasting longing, I went back to the first scene about my concept of Irish suffering because this music and this performance/dance and theater piece is exactly about that.

it has the feel of morality tale of religious persecution, subjugation, oppression of people especially women and the graet human spirit of survival.

A priest comes into the story. The priest played by Micheal Murfi assaults a young woman Finola,

Rachel Poirier, a wonderful dancer and the star of the show) and then being afraid that she will talk, 

puts a curse on her and her three sisters to turn into, "filthy Animal."  Now they live at the edge of

the lake and these are the Swans in this play...young women in white dresses, white wings and wearing black wings after the priest's curse. Their movements and their dance including the men  as well are just priceless. 

One evening Jimmy takes his gun out and goes to the lake to kill himself and at that exact moment

a woman/swan appears suddenly to prevent him to kill himself.  He falls in love with her, its Finola

and they dance together, a dance of joy and liberation and freedom at last.  There are many highlights

in this majestic ballet/dance/performance but this one is the most heartfelt because by this time we want something beautiful to happen for Finola and Jimmy.

This Swan Lake is difficult to describe in simple terms because it encompasses so much history, folklore and mythology in 75 minutes.  I wish it went on and on especially the most incredible and joyful last scene, the last dance in the show with tons of beautiful white goose feathers also dancing with the dancers and falling like pure white snow flaks all over the stage and all over the first few rows of the audience.  It was a moment to rejoice and put all the anguish, oppression and history of Ireland behind.

Michael Keegan-Dolan is one of the most fabulous choreographer/writer and director I have encountered.  This is his first work I have experienced and it won't be the last. The whole cast is marvelous, very talented and appealing. Rachel Poirier is superb. A thrilling experience for me.

I also love everything Irish.  I was in Dublin three times this year and I breathed poetry, literature/

humor/pain/joy and enormous history every minute and kept going back...Irish have great humor and great poetry and a sense of survival  and great music in them and all of it is  in Micael Keegan-Dolan's Swan Lake/Loch na hEala.

REVIEWED

BY

BINA SHARIF

artsinternational.blogspot.com

email: binashariff@gmail.com

Cell; 212-260-6207

www.facebook.com

WHY? by peter brook AT THEATRE FOR A NEW AUDIENCE

Actors: Hayley Carmichael and Kathryn Hunter

THEATRE FOR A NEW AUDIENCE
presents
C.I.C.T. / Theatre des Bouffes du Nord

WHY?

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY
Peter Brook and Marie-Helene Estienne
with
Hayley Carmichael, Kathryn Hunter, and Marcello Magni

Peter Brook is one of the most talented International Theater Director. He is an expert in
various genres: Opera, writing, theater, cinema.  He is a minimalist.  His book called
'THE EMPTY SPACE" Is a bible for directors especially who appreciate very little stuff on stage.
Every actor has been inthralled for decades by Peter Brook.  He is a philosopher as well.  All his plays seem simple with just a carpet on stage and a few stools or small chairs.  Thats' it.
Believe me a carpet makes the set, elegant, sophisticated and exotic like his actors.  He has actors from all over the planet.  Talking about diversity in the theater, no one can beat Peter Brook.

But his plays are not simple, they are loaded with meaning, drama, emotions, politics, religion,
the plight of civilization. WHY?  is all that and more.

Actors simply tells us that when god created humanity, humanity got bored quickly and then
for their amusement god created theater which provided joy and eventually danger.
Actors become real actors on stage and demonstrate without any hint of self importance how to be a real actor.  How to play drunk for an example.  Most of the actors playing drunk in ordinary drama
try to be drunk, they are wobbly as if they can't walk because they are playing drunk.  But the real
great acting playing drunk involves being still.   in WHY? one of the actor plays drunk.
He is trying to un-lock his door with his key but can never locate the key hole eventually the keys fall down but he can't pick them up, he gestures towards the audience in the first row to pick them up and
give it to him but the audience member picks up the keys and throw them at him, he can't catch them,
keys fall on the floor again...this whole scene becomes a great lesson in marvelous acting lesson
and is hilarious at the same time.

All the actors in the show are superb. They can move, they can dance, they can sing.  Great talented cast,  a joy to watch.

Then play turns into the danger part of the theater.  It deals with great actors and directors in Communist countries, in this case Soviet Union where everything is censored and theater is considered dangerous and the people doing it as well.  Well known theater directors and their wives are being arrested, tortured and killed.  So the philosophy of the play WHY?  is a question.
Why should such creative imagination which gives such joy is a punishable act? and why life should be like that? Why we always have to pay a price for having any kind of fun and joy... Why? the eventual punishment?

WHY? is an amazing play, it raises so many important questions which have no answers, it's life.
In life one doesn't know when a moment of great happiness will turn into a dangerous tragedy.

I love Peter Brook.  I have always loved him.  When I was living in London long time ago studying
acting, I came upon his book, The Empty Space and that is my bible  now and I hate clutter on stage.
Minimalism breathes, moves, and smells freshness.  When ever there is an empty space one wants to get up and dance...and free movement on stage without bumping into furniture is pure bliss in the theater.

REVIEWED BY
BINA SHARIF
artsinternational.blogspot.com
binashariff@gmail.com
Cell; 212-260-6207

NOTES ON MY MOTHER'S DECLINE NYTW (NEXT DOOR)

Actors: Caroline Lagerfelt and Ari Fliakos

DIRECTED BY: KNUD ADAMS
AT
NYTW (NEXT DOOR)

NOTES ON MY MOTHER'S DECLINE is an autobiographical play about a mother  who is ill
and her declining health is being watched by her son who might be in his late thirties or early forties.
The audience sits on both sides of the stage giving it an intimate feeling.  There is nice big bed with white bed cover.  The son, named Andy (Ari Fliakos) narrates the play.
Mother (Caroline Langerfelt) walks   in a nice pink nightgown and lies down on the bed, her head propped up by pillows.

The son tells us about his mothers routine.  "She smokes.  She smokes."  He repeats often with the
great sense of detachment. He is also miked and his sound adds another layer of emotional distance
from his mother.  I guess since the play is autobiographical perhaps the son was never so intimate
with his mother but some how we want him to be, we want him to be more involved with his emotions of grief because we all know even from the title of the play that the mother is going to die soon.  He tells us about the caretaker who is very nice but eventually steals money from her.

Mother lives in the same apt in the East Village where she raised her son.  The son also lives close by.
Mother complains that he doesn't visit so often.  They don't talk directly to each other.  Mother is
upbeat and jovial.  The son is very serious, serious but not sad, not openly sad, maybe trying not
to be sad but this way the play doesn't have any looming sense of loss.  I didn't share the son's grief
because he didn't want to share it.  Play stayed dry emotionally. Towards the end the son takes the
wire of. Maybe at this time he wants to share his real voice with some tenderness.

I think the play would work much better if it was a radio play with some sound effects added.
Caroline Lagerfelt was excellent. She had the wit, the humor, the sense of impending tragedy
and love of life. We find out during the course of the play that she loved theater.

The set by Marsha Ginsberg is effective.  The lights by Oona Curley not so.  Lights are directed more  towards the audience which was annoying.  They should have been more focussed on the
actors but since there were audience on both side of the stage that was the best they could do.
I wish the son was more grief stricken.  I am not being morbid but after-all his mother was dying.
this play could have made me cry but my eyes stayed dry.  I felt for the mother but not for the son
and I didn't like him being miked.  I love natural voice and it would have worked much better because the place small and intimate.

REVIEWED
BY
BINA SHARIF

artsinternational,logspot.com
binashariff@gmail.com
Cell; 212-260-6207