A WHOLE LOT OF ACTING GOIN' ON: Pinter's "The Caretaker" with Jonathan Pryce at BAM

In case I failed to mention it, I did take in the current production of Harold Pinter's "The Caretaker" with Jonathan Pryce at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater.

Pryce, Hassell & Cox in "The Caretaker" at BAM

But then comes the question, what can one say about it? Can you ever really know what the heck it's all about? "The Caretaker" was Pinter's first success in the theater and shows the British playwright flexing his artistic muscle. Pinter was never one to be categorized, but you can't help but feel the effects and acceptance of Beckett in this early work. But Beckett's characters begrudgingly honor their humanity even as they stare into the yawning abyss, where Pinter's are perpetually lost in an arid emotionless desert.


In this case we have Aston (Alan Cox) bringing an old geezer, Davies (Pryce), home to his cluttered leaky attic room in a house owned by his brother, Mick (Alex Hassell). There's talk of things being done around the place (a shed in the backyard is on top of the list) but the only work that gets accomplished is Aston's constant repairs on an old toaster. The two brothers are rarely in the same room together and when they are they don't speak. Mick takes a sadistic pleasure in harassing old Davies. Davies sees a weakness in Aston and tries to prey on it which provokes Aston to revoke his invitation. All the talk is about care-taking and growth but no one seems to be able to do any. The set by Eileen Diss adds a claustrophobic tightness that provides additional tension to the drama and the lighting, masterfully done by Colin Grenfell, gives a nice sense of mustiness and passing weather. 


Pryce gives a masterful performance as the old homeless man Davies, part existential vaudeville, part Shakespearean bombast, and kept reminding me of Stanley Townsend's performance as the homeless tramp in Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky", full of gibber and flips and quirky pirouettes. It's a fine line that Pryce walks, a fine, wavering line. Alex Hassell gives Mike a sense of street menace and someone teetering on the edge of mania with the sex appeal of the psychotic. The stand-out performance of the evening is Alan Cox's Aston. Button-downed and soft-spoken, his monologue at the end of Act 1 was equally gripping and harrowing and involves the play's nastiest bit of care-taking, the kind action done out of "love" that kills rather than cares.

At the Harvey Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, 651 Fulton Street, Fort Greene; (718) 636-4100, bam.org. Through June 17.

CONDITIONAL LOVE: Remembering Donna Summer

I was a teen living in Philadelphia when the phenomena known as Donna Summer began to enter my consciousness. Her first hit single "Love To Love You Baby" was making waves in the media partly for the orgasmic moaning that pervaded the recording, partly because in its 12" format it provided 17 minutes of it! Living in Philadelphia at that time, dance music was very important, especially in the gay community, yet I had a hard time relating to this new "hit". Perhaps it was the the incessant female moaning, perhaps the robotic beat of Giorgio Moroder's synthesizers, but whatever it was it baffled me at the time. But my regard for Summer's voice changed that summer when I was on a youth tour in Israel. There the buses were all equipped with radios. One day while out in the desert, the bus' radio begins to broadcast "Love to Love You Baby". Within seconds, in broad daylight, a bat comes through a window, onto the bus and attaches itself to a radio speaker on the roof and refuses to move until someone took their shirt and literally peeled the creature off the speaker.


There has always been a magnetic quality to Donna Summer's voice. I may have had difficulty initially, but her large mezzo-soprano voice was warm with just a light vibrato. I guess this reflects her roots in gospel, but unlike her fellow recently deceased chorister-cum-diva Whitney Houston, a strong direct quality that helped give her hits the anthemic appeal that singers today can only dream about.

Summer's emergence in the disco era was remarkable but not surprising. For many she WAS Disco. But she was an artist willing to push boundaries. Side A of A Love Trilogy is a single 17+ minute track "Try Me, I Know We Can Make It" that takes it's lyrics from that simple title. As I remember, it came with four calendar pin-ups of Summer and was an excellent choice for sex. Many of her albums were double albums; four full sides of hypnotic music. "Bad Girls" was essential to drunken Friday night parties as well as Improvisational Theater classes with Avery Brooks. 

She also tapped into the feminist movement of the 70's and making it pop, glorifying the "working women" whether sex worker or waitress, and her duet with Barbra Streisand "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" is the anthem for anyone who has ever been fed up with a lover. By the early 80's, her cover of Jon Anderson's "State of Independence" and her collaboration with Musical Youth "Unconditional Love" shows she was an artist interested in various and diverse sources. By the end of the last century her fame may not have been as glorious as it once was (her unfortunate statement in the late 80's regarding HIV and AIDS cost her deeply and she has apologized), but now, in retrospect, it blazed for us for an incredibly incandescent period.  

Finding videos of her performing live on Youtube today reminded me what a sharp, appealing performer she was. I will always associate her music with friends, good times and general happiness.


Thank you for the joy!!

On The Road Again

So what was one to do over a week in Boca Raton, Florida?

Especially since I had to miss Second Saturday Staten Island this month. Deep Tanks features an amazing exhibit until June 4th; a retrospective of Island artist Arthur Williams. 

Arthur Williams at Deep Tanks, Installation View

Highly graphic, slightly hallucinogenic, this densely packed mini-retrospective includes over 100 works in painting and ceramics. Williams has a Pop sensibility, sometimes crossed with the retro checkerboard styling of the 80s. 

Arthur Williams at Deep Tanks, Installation View

The numerous canvases range from adept to truly surprising. I found myself oddly drawn to the objects over the two dimensional work, but all the works are infused with humor and compassion. 

Arthur Williams at Deep Tanks, Installation View

It will undoubtedly put a smile on your face. The show is up until June 3rd and if this doesn't get you up and off your ass and over here, well.......

I was fortunate to have picked up a copy of Alison Bechdel's "Are You My Mother?" from the New York Public Library before taking off to the sunny South. And could I have picked up a more appropriate book? This graphic memoir by the creator of "Dykes To Look Out For" follows up on her 2006 "Fun House". Where the latter dealt with her relationship to her homosexual, transvestite father, this current volume deals with her relationship with her mother, often focusing on the period of her developing "Fun House".  It is a big story contained in a slim volume, but Bechdel is a veteran of the panel concept and knows how to utilize the format to her advantage. Actually a study of the Mother-Daughter relationship at the turn of the century, the author pursues a multi-threaded approach; the story encompasses the psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott and author Virginia Wolff with "sidebars" into the worlds of Sigmund Freud and Stephen Sondheim in a masterful slight of hand.


And I read it in under a week!!


So what DOES one do in Broward County? Well I called Girls' Club in Fort Lauderdale to see if they might be able to open up for me Saturday morning (official hours 12-5 Weds-Fri) on my way down to Miami. And sure enough, they accommodated me! 

Re-Framing The Feminine at Girls' Club, Installation View

"Re-Framing The Feminine" is an exhibit curated by Dina Mitrani, a Miami curator, of almost 50 photographic works from the organization's founder's collection. And it is an impressive collection; leaning heavily in works of the past 25 years, it does pay slight homage to earlier women photographers with unsurprising works by Ruth Orkin and Helen Leavitt. The general slant is the "female" eye but a large majority of the work features the female body. 

Re-Framing The Feminine at Girls' Club, Installation View

The show has a pleasant mixture of the familiar (Tina Barney, Vera Lutter, Sally Mann) and the unfamiliar (Courtney Johnson, Delia Brown, Ania Moussawei) that plays it fairly safe but has some definite high notes that include Lucinda Devlin's interiors of "fantasy" motels, Carrie Mae Weem's charmingly elegiac Untitled photograph, and Delia Brown's sly vamp on the Becher school grid in "Some of My Clothes". 
But where were Catherine Opie, Justine Kurland and Sarah Charlesworth? This may be the downfall of dealing with just one couple's collection when curating a "big" show.


I decided to breakfast in FTL and remembered a place called the Egg and You Diner on Rte 1 in Wilton Manors. I chalk it up to my New Jersey upbringing that made me sense this was a "serious" diner and I indulged in a sinfully delicious breakfast of biscuits with sausage gravy. Sitting at the counter I met other late morning diners who had journeyed 30+ miles just for their poached eggs with cheese sauce!! Yum yum yum!!!

According to friend and curator Dan Cameron, I missed a really good show at the Miami Art Museum while I was down that afternoon, but I did get to visit Scotty's Landing for a leisurely late afternoon meal. Lousy service took some time to acknowledge us, but they did offer Magic Hat #9, a personal hot weather fave. I also experienced my first fish taco!! Featuring fried grouper in a flour tortilla, I did wish the accompanying sides of guacamole, slaw and salsa hadn't arrived in covered #6 plastic containers, but the final composed product was not unsatisfactory.



Speaking of Magic Hat Brewery, I decided to forgo my usual vodka and whatever this trip for a six-pack of their Summer Elder Betty brew. To my luck it's an American Hefeweizen beer with a lovely dark color to it; the elderberries add a dark fruitiness that balances the sharp mustiness of the wheat beer. Nicely done.


Then came Mother's Day when I accompanied my Mother to CHOPS Lobster Bar in Boca Raton so we could split the Dover Sole entree. For high end eating down there it wasn't too shabby. Considering the date, the restaurant was humming but not overwhelmed and the service was attentive without being overbearing. The initial room is a bit dark but the main dining room has a vaulted tiled ceiling reminiscent of the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station and an ample view into the active kitchen. The bourbon ginger cocktail I had as a starter was excellent and set the bar for the rest of the meal. The Caesar salad was creamy and not overwhelmed by enormous croutons as it often is; here they were represented by thin small dark "crisps". The sole was prepared with care table-side and maintained the general level of richness the entire meal had. Sharing a slice of strawberry cheesecake for dessert, we both slowly rolled home remarkably full!!

Judi Dench and Friends in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

What do you do on a rainy Florida afternoon with your Mum? Why not go to the movies? My Mom had been pitching for the new British import The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, so off one rainy afternoon we went to the multiplex. Effectively directed by John Madden (Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown, Shakespeare in Love), a strong ensemble cast featuring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Bill Nighy, and Maggie Smith as a group of "older" English-folk who find themselves trying to adapt to the ways of the sub-continent in a run-down "hotel" being run by a inexperienced but enthusiastic Sonny (Dev Patel of "Slumdog Millionaire") is perfectly fine. Nothing really surprising unfolds here (the gay character dies and receives a full Hindu burial, the toxic couple separate healthfully, the "desperate" find "hope", Sonny stands up to his Mum, and old codger Maggie Smith ends up liking India!!!) but it is nice to see how competent actors deal with mediocre material. The cinematography does do a nice job of capturing the whirling kaleidoscopic of urban India. If you must.