The New Yorker - May 2 2016

8/17/2019 The New Yorker - May 2 2016

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MAY 2, 2016PRICE $7.99


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GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN

THE TALK OF THE TOWN Amy Davidson on politics, money, and Hillary;

an erstwhile Trump adviser; Susan Sarandon;Falstaff; Prince and the meaning of genius.

ANNALS OF SCIENCE Siddhartha Mukherjee Same but Different Identical twins and the science of epigenetics.

SHOUTS & MURMURS

Hallie Cantor and

“Uber Ex,” a Rom-Com Spec Script Jason Adam Katzenstein

MAY 2, 2016

DRAWINGS Danny Shanahan, Farley Katz, Emily Flake, Mick Stevens, BenjaminSchwartz, Liana Finck, P. C. Vey, Roz Chast, Peter Kuper, Jack Ziegler, Paul Noth,

Charlie Hankin, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Tom Chitty, William Haefeli, Drew DernavichSPOTS Jeffrey Fisher

OUR LOCAL CORRESPONDENTS Ian Frazier The Bag Bill Dealing with an everyday ecological menace.

A REPORTER AT LARGE Eyal Press Madness The torture of mentally ill inmates in a

Florida prison.

PORTFOLIOPari Dukovic and Top of the Town

James Sanders Observation decks of New York. FICTION Alexandra Kleeman “Choking Victim”

THE CRITICS A CRITIC AT LARGE David Denby Sex, censorship, and Hollywood.

BOOKS Peter Schjeldahl A new biography of Wallace Stevens. Briefly Noted

POP MUSIC Hua Hsu Anohni reinvents the protest song.

POEMS

Stav Poleg “The City” Kathleen Heil “Kegger in Georgi Balanchivadze’s Backyard”

COVER Bob Staake “Purple Rain”


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CONTRIBUTORS

Eyal Press (“Madness,” p. ), the au-thor of “Beautiful Souls,” is a visitingournalism fellow at the Russell Sage

Foundation and a past recipient of theames Aronson Award for Social Jus-tice Journalism.

Siddhartha Mukherjee (“Same but Differ-ent,” p. ) is the Pulitzer Prize-win-ning author of “The Gene: An Inti-mate History,” which will be publishedin May.

Hallie Cantor (Shouts & Murmurs,. ) writes for the upcoming NBC

variety show “Maya & Marty.” JasonAdam Katzenstein, a New Yorker car-toonist, illustrated the graphic novel“Camp Midnight,” due out in May.

Ian Frazier (“The Bag Bill,” p. ) is theauthor of “Hogs Wild: Selected Re-porting Pieces,” which comes out inune. He is working on a book about

the Bronx.

Bob Staake (Cover ) has created nine-

teen covers for the magazine. “Beachyand Me” is his latest children’s book.

Pari Dukovic (Portfolio, p. ) is a staffphotographer. His work is included ina group exhibit entitled “Music,” which

is on view at the Ilon Art Gallery, inNew York.

James Sanders (“Top of the Town,” p. ), an architect, is the author of“Celluloid Skyline: New York and theMovies.”

Vinson Cunningham (The Talk of theTown, p. ), whose work has appearedin the Times Magazine and McSwee-ney’s , is a contributor to newyorker.com.

Alexandra Kleeman (Fiction, p. ) writesfiction and nonfiction. She is the au-thor of the novel “You Too Can Havea Body Like Mine,” and will publish“Imitations,” a collection of short sto-ries, in September.

David Denby ( A Critic at Large, p. ),a staff writer and a former film criticfor the magazine, recently published“Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools.

Twenty-four Books That Can ChangeLives.”

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R I G H T : M I C H

A E L T U C K E R


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THE MAIL

her—namely, her husband and Sanders—but there was little mention of her rec-ord as a stateswoman (“The Great Di-

vide,” March st). This speaks to muchof the media’s coverage of Clinton’s cam-paign. It’s true that Hillary was Bill’spartner in many of his achievements, andthat Sanders is often credited with pull-ing her to the left. But Clinton has hada long career, both as a senator and asthe Secretary of State, by which she canbe judged. She is liberal and progressive,especially in the domestic context thatLizza’s article focusses on. She has a longrecord on equal pay, the minimum wage,

and health care. She deserves to be as-sessed on her own record and positions.Laura S. Humphrey Jackson Heights, N.Y.1

THE MYTH OF OLD JAPAN

Judith Thurman, in her account of thefashion designer Guo Pei, writes that thepatrician culture of China was “importedto Japan millennia ago” (“The Empire’sNew Clothes,” March st). In fact, the

importation of Tang Dynasty Chinese cul-ture peaked only a little more than a mil-lennium ago. We tend to forget that Jap-anese culture as we know it today isrelatively young, when compared with theancient cultures of Rome, Persia, Greece,China, and Egypt. Nonetheless, in con-temporary China elements of Japaneseculture—such as the traditional architec-ture throughout the Kyoto-Nara region—seem ancient indeed, because they are rel-ics of practices that were suspended on

the mainland. This is what makes Thur-man’s account of Chinese tourists in Kyotoso interesting: unable to connect withtheir own classical past in China, they areturning to Japan. Even so, they aren’t ableto reach very far back at all. John A. F. Hopkins Tokyo, Japan

MATTERS OF FACT

ill Lepore, in her piece on truth in the

Internet age, writes that “the collectionand weighing of facts require investiga-tion, discernment, and judgment, whilethe collection and analysis of data areoutsourced to machines” (“After the Fact,”March st). This view minimizes therole of a programmer, who, like a librar-ian, aims at preserving and presentingfacts and data in a meaningful way. Le-pore quotes Michael Lynch, the authorof “The Internet of Us,” as saying that

we no longer discover facts; we down-

load them. But how different is the pro-cess of searching online from searchingin the stacks? Are the words of the Fed-eralist Papers any more significant whenread in the Library of Congress than ona glowing screen in a Starbucks? Either

way a brain is processing data, and it’sup to each person to make sense of that. Michael John Cross Waterloo, Iowa

Lepore’s question—how do we establish

what is “true”?—is one that science re-peatedly confronts. The Russian scien-tist Ivan Pavlov’s experiment with dogsis widely considered one of the best proofsof the scientific method. Pavlov noticedthat his dogs salivated at the sight offood and at the assistant who broughtthe food, and even at the sound of theassistant’s footsteps. Unable to under-stand the dogs’ reactions, Pavlov arrivedat three questions: Can I see it? Can Imeasure it? Can the results be repeated?

Pavlov’s systematic approach led to thediscovery of the conditioned reflex, rev-olutionizing science. Perhaps these samequestions are a good place to begin whensearching for truth in the Internet age. Edward A. Wasserman, Stuit Professorof Experimental Psychology The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa 1

JUDGING HILLARY

In Ryan Lizza’s article on Bernie San-ders and Hillary Clinton, much was madeof Clinton in reference to the men around

•

Letters should be sent with the writer’s name, address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to

[email protected]. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and may be published in any medium. We regret that owing to the volume of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.

MIDSUMMERNIGHT’S

DREAM

May 24–29

nycballet.com/midsummer

Photo © Sam Wootton

nycbal let .com

(212) 496-0600


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The daughter of a ballet dancer and a champion soccer coach,Michelle Dorrance is a tap dancer of gawkygrace with especially quick, smart feet. But she has won particular attention for her choreographic cre-

ativity in extending tap tradition in new directions. In “ETM: Double Down” (at the Joyce, April -May ), the virtuosic footwork of Dorrance and her affable company, Dorrance Dance, triggers digitallyproduced sounds, bringing the rhythms of metal-tipped shoes into the age of electronic dance music.

PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION BY AMANDA JASNOWSKI PASCUAL

GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN

APRIL 27–MAY 3, 2016


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CLASSICAL MUSIC1

OPERA

Metropolitan Opera

The late Patrice Chéreau’s new production o “Elek-tra” (realized at the Met by Vincent Huguet, a youngcolleague) is possibly the most humane render-ing o the opera ever brought to the stage. This isthe tragedy o a royal household, not just that o adysfunctional family, and even small roles (suchas the Fifth Maid, a poignant Roberta Alexander)are strategically cast. Chéreau’s Chrysothemis isnot the traditional weak sister but a strong and in-dependent character, and in Adrianne Pieczonkashe has a voice o cutting power that complementsthe rounded heft o Nina Stemme as Elektra, a pa-thetic slave o vengeance and thwarted sexuality.Eric Owens’s mighty Orest serenely accepts the ter-rible task that the gods have set for him; Esa-PekkaSalonen, in the pit, shapes the score with an unex-

pected tenderness. Chéreau’s only miscalculationwas the casting o Waltraud Meier, who lacks thelow notes for Klytämnestra, robbing the charactero the menace with which Strauss and Hofmanns-thal endowed her. (April 30 at 1.) • Also playing: Insome o his final performances as the Met’s music di-rector, James Levine conducts a complex comedy byone o his heroes, Mozart—“Die Entführung aus demSerail.” The talented ensemble cast includes AlbinaShagimuratova, Kathleen Kim, Paul Appleby, andHans-Peter König. (Ben Bliss replaces Appleby onApril 30.) (April 27 and May 3 at 7:30 and April 30 at8.) • Bartlett Sher’s effectively abstract, pseudo-nine-teenth-century production o Verdi’s “Otello,” whichopened the season in September under the baton oYannick Nézet-Séguin, returns for a brie revival.Aleksandrs Antonenko, in the punishing title role,and Željko Lučić, as Iago, are back; new to the pro-duction are the soprano Hibla Gerzmava, as Des-demona, and the conductor Adam Fischer. (April 28

and May 2 at 7:30.) • Puccini’s “La Bohème,” perhapsthe world’s most popular opera, returns with a prom-ising young cast that features Maria Agresta andBryan Hymel, and Ailyn Pérez and Levente Molnár,as the two leading couples; Dan Ettinger. (April 29

at 7:30.) (Metropolitan Opera House. 212-362-6000.)

New York City Opera: “Hopper’s Wife”In its continued quest to find a niche in the city’sopera scene, the recently revived company in-augurates a chamber-opera series with the East

Coast première o Stewart Wallace’s three-character opera (with a pungent libretto by Mi-chael Korie), which imagines a marriage betweenthe painter Edward Hopper and the gossip colum-nist Hedda Hopper. Andreas Mitisek, the heado both Chicago Opera Theatre and Long BeachOpera, directs; James Lowe conducts. (Harlem Stage Gatehouse, 150 Convent Ave., at W. 135th St. nycopera.com. April 28-30 at 7:30 and May 1 at 4.)

Manhattan School of Music Opera Theatre:French Double BillThe school’s year-end production is something oa surprise, with Ravel’s delightful “L’Enfant et lesSortilèges” preceded by a true rarity: “Persée etAndromède,” a one-act by Ravel’s young colleague

Jacques Ibert which gives the myth o Perseus andAndromeda an unexpected twist à la “Beauty andthe Beast.” James Robinson, the longtime artisticdirector o Opera Theatre o St. Louis, directs;

Pierre Vallet, a staff conductor at the Met, con-ducts. (Claremont Ave. at 122nd St. msmnyc.edu.

April 27 and April 29 at 7:30 and May 1 at 2:30.)

MasterVoices: “Dido and Aeneas”With a new name and a revised mission—to performoperas and operettas in English—the organizationformerly known as the Collegiate Chorale brings asemi-staging o Purcell’s svelte Baroque masterpieceto City Center. The production, cast eclectically butfrom strength, features Kelli O’Hara, Elliot Ma-dore, Victoria Clark, and Anna Christy. Ted Sper-ling conducts Doug Varone’s production, which fea-tures gowns by Christian Siriano and a new prologuewritten by Michael John LaChiusa. (City Center, 131W. 55th St. 212-581-1212. April 28 at 7 and April 29 at 8.)

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ORCHESTRAS AND CHORUSES

New York PhilharmonicHigh Romanticism would seem to be the theme forthe orchestra’s upcoming program. Schumann’s melt-ingly lyrical Cello Concerto (with Carter Brey, thePhilharmonic’s principal cellist) stands at the center,preceded by the world première o “Après,” by FranckKrawczyk, a young French composer appreciativeo Schumann’s aesthetic, and followed by Brahms’sSymphony No. 2 in D Major, all under the batono Alan Gilbert. (David Geffen Hall. 212-875-5656.

April 27-28 at 7:30, April 29 at 2, and April 30 at 8.)

Clarion: “Transcendental Taverner”The Metropolitan Museum presents a repeat en-gagement o Steven Fox’s first-rate choral ensem-ble, versatile in repertory stretching from the

Renaissance to Russian Romanticism. This con-cert in the Medieval Sculpture Hall centers onsacred works by John Taverner, one o the lead-ing composers o Tudor England (including the“Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas”), as well as by a dis-tinguished contemporary, John Sheppard. (Fifth

Ave. at 82nd St. 212-570-3949. April 29 at 7:30.)

Utah Symphony OrchestraAs part o its seventy-fifth-season celebration,the orchestra, which became an important Amer-ican ensemble under the command o the legend-ary Maurice Abravanel, returns to Carnegie Hallunder its current music director, Thierry Fischer.Haydn’s Symphony No. 96, “The Miracle,” is the

prelude for a vivid program that features not onlymusic by Prokofiev (selections from “Romeo and Juliet”) and Bartók (“The Miraculous Mandarin”)but also the New York première o Andrew Nor-man’s “Switch,” a concerto commissioned by theorchestra for the stellar British percussionist ColinCurrie. (212-247-7800. April 29 at 8.)

Atlanta Symphony OrchestraRobert Spano has energetically continued themandate o an illustrious former music director,Robert Shaw, to make the Atlanta Symphony (andits superb Symphony Chorus) a lodestar for first-rate choral performance. Its latest concert at Car-negie Hall is a centenary tribute to the late, greatShaw, featuring the New York première o a work

by Jonathan Leshnoff (“Zohar”) as well as a Shawspecialty, Brahms’s “German Requiem”; the vocalsoloists are Jessica Rivera and Nmon Ford. (212- 247-7800. April 30 at 8.)

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RECITALS

Park Avenue Armory:Kristóf Baráti and Klára WürtzThe acclaimed young violinist and pianist con-tinue the Armory’s distinctive recital series, heldin the lovingly restored Board o Officers Room.Beethoven is on the menu, specifically the Sonatasfor Violin and Piano Nos. 2, 8, and 9 (“Kreutzer”).(Park Ave. at 66th St. armoryonpark.org. April 27-28

at 7:30.)

Emanuel AxThe pianist, a major presence in New York’s mu-sical life for nearly four decades, returns to Car-negie Hall, the scene o many past triumphs, for asolo recital devoted exclusively to music by Beetho-ven which features the Six Variations on an Orig-inal Theme, Op. 34, and three sonatas (includingthe “Pathétique” and the “Appassionata”). (212-247-7800. April 27 at 8.)

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln CenterThe Society begins the week with the final per-formance o the season’s new-music series, withsuch stalwarts as the violinist Kristin Lee, the

violist Richard O’Neill, and the cellist NicholasCanellakis performing works by some o today’smost celebrated composers, including MarioDavidovsky (“Festino,” for guitar and strings),William Bolcom (“Duo Fantasy,” for violin andpiano), Vivian Fung, Thomas Larcher, and JohnHarbison (the Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello).(Kaplan Penthouse. April 28 at 7:30.) • The re-nowned hornist Radovan Vlatković anchors aprogram dedicated to his instrument, collabo-rating with the violinist Paul Huang, the tenorNicholas Phan, and the pianist Juho Pohjonen,among others, in works by Dvořák, Schubert(including “Au dem Strom,” for tenor, horn,and piano), and Schumann, as well as Brahms’smagnificent Trio for Horn, Violin, and Piano.(Alice Tully Hall. May 3 at 7:30.) (212-875-5788.)

“Harolyn Blackwell Sings André Previn”Previn, as composer, conductor, and pianist, isa most sophisticated man, and his music, whilelistener-friendly, has a distinctive atmosphere.Blackwell, a longtime colleague o the composer,brings her vocal glamour to Previn’s “Honey andRue” (a song cycle with texts by Toni Morrison)in a concert with the pianist Marc Peloquin whichalso features music by Shostakovich and RickyIan Gordon. (Tenri Cultural Institute, 43A W. 13th St. April 30 at 8. Tickets at the door.)

Ariel Quartet

One o the finest o the up-and-coming stringquartets shows its stuff in Central European rep-ertory by Haydn (the Quartet in B-Flat Major,Op. 76, No. 4, “Sunrise”), Webern, Bartók, andBrahms (the Quartet in A Minor, Op. 51, No. 2)in a performance at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.(212-247-7800. May 3 at 7:30.)

Third SoundLate last year, this forward-looking, expert ensem-ble made its début in Havana, bringing a trancheo music by talented American composers. Theyshare some o it with New York audiences at Na-tional Sawdust, performing music by MichaelHarrison, Kati Agócs (“Immutable Dreams”),and Spencer Topel, along with classics by Elliott

Carter (“Esprit Rude/Esprit Doux”) and Take-mitsu (“Orion”); a brie documentary about thegroup’s Cuban journey is also included. (80 N. 6th St., Brooklyn. nationalsawdust.org. May 3 at 9:30.)


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Another Happy DayDianne Wiest takes on Beckett’s Winnie,the Hamlet for actresses.

, sixty-eight-year-old actress with thedistinctive voice, who is set to star as

Winnie in a revival of Samuel Beckett’s piece “Happy Days” at the YaleRepertory Theatre (April -May ),

worries for the late Nobel Prize- winning writer. While rereading, forinstance, James Knowlson’s “Damnedto Fame,” his lively biography of

Beckett, Wiest still wished for Beckett’ssuccess earlier than he achieved it—that was in , when he was forty-six and

Yale Repertory Theatre revives Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days,” directed by James Bundy.

“Waiting for Godot” premièred inParis—because she wanted his mother,

the powerful May, to learn how her“brilliant boy turns out.” (For years,Beckett borrowed money from his motherin order to survive. She died in .)

Wiest, a mother of two, considers Winnie—a talkative, dominant, andsomewhat pretentious woman, whomBeckett based partly on his mother—a“timeless” character, one that she’s cir-cled for twenty years, too terrified totake it on. “It’s the Hamlet for ac-tresses,” she told me recently. About ten

years ago, James Bundy, who heads theprestigious Yale School of Drama,spoke to Wiest at a cocktail party and

asked her what she wanted to play. Shenamed “Happy Days,” which theatrelegends such as Irene Worth and FionaShaw have tackled, too. (Wiest: “I wishI had asked people like Estelle Parsons,

who played Winnie, ‘How did youbegin to memorize it? And projectmental action?’ I didn’t know.”)

It wasn’t until last year that Wiest, who’s won two Oscars and two Emmys,felt that she was able to sit down andlearn the lines for what is essentially amonologue. (In the two-hander, JarlathConroy plays her husband, Willie, a

man of few words, who is mostly hiddenfrom view.) She goes over them againand again, she told me, as she listens toBeckett’s voice, and to her director’s.“James Bundy is so perceptive and faith-ful about the text; he’ll point out acomma, and then this whole worldopens up about what Beckett mighthave meant there instead of what I wasdoing. In a way, there’s nothing to dobut live the part. And show the ambi-guity of the mind.” Indeed, part of the

challenge for any actress in the role islearning how to physicalize withoutdominating Beckett’s process of intel-lection, which so often turns out to berelated, somehow, to his idiosyncratic,acerbic, and romantic way of thinkingabout how we struggle to make sensein a world filled with confusing signsand symbols.

This is not Wiest’s first go at Beck-ett. “Years ago, Alan Schneider di-rected me in the American première of

‘Footfalls,’ and I was so young I didn’treally get it, but on some level I gotit—I got Beckett’s importance. I didn’tknow the enormity of what I was doing,but I understood it in an intuitive way.

That’s when I began to fall in love withBeckett.” As Wiest prepares to make

Winnie her own—or be claimed by Winnie—the nervous, intelligent, andfunny actress familiar to moviegoersshows herself. “The only thing thatmakes me more anxious than rehearsal,”

she said with a laugh, “is not being inrehearsal.”

—Hilton Als I L L U S T R A T I O

N B Y J E F F Ö S T B E R G

THE THEATRE



THE THEATRE1

OPENINGS AND PREVIEWS

Cirque du Soleil—ParamourThe Canadian circus company mounts its newestacrobatic spectacle, which tells the story o a star-let choosing between love and art during Holly-wood’s golden age. (Lyric, 213 W. 42nd St. 877-250-

2929. In previews.)

Daphne’s Dive

Thomas Kail directs a play by Quiara AlegríaHudes, featuring Vanessa Aspillaga and DaphneRubin-Vega, about the owner o a cheap bar inNorth Philly and her adopted daughter. (Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W. 42nd St. 212-244-7529. In previews.)

Dear Evan HansenIn a new musical by Benj Pasek, Justin Paul, andSteven Levenson, directed by Michael Greif, alonely teen-ager (Ben Platt) becomes the acciden-tal subject o viral Internet fame. (Second Stage, 305W. 43rd St. 212-246-4422. In previews. Opens May 1.)

A Doll’s HouseAt Theatre for a New Audience, Arin Arbus di-

rects John Douglas Thompson and Maggie Laceyin Thornton Wilder’s adaptation o the Ibsendrama, in repertory with Strindberg’s “The Fa-ther.” (Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Pl.,

Brooklyn. 866-811-4111. Previews begin April 30.)

Gorey: The Secret Lives of Edward GoreyLife Jacket Theatre Company presents a play writ-ten and directed by Travis Russ, covering fiftyyears o the illustrator’s life. (HERE, 145 Sixth Ave., near Spring St. 212-352-3101. Previews begin April 30. Opens May 3.)

IncognitoManhattan Theatre Club stages Nick Payne’s play,which braids the stories o a pathologist who stealsEinstein’s brain, a neuropsychologist beginning anew romance, and a seizure patient who loses hismemory. Doug Hughes directs. (City Center Stage I,

131 W. 55th St. 212-581-1212. Previews begin May 3.)

Long Day’s Journey Into Night Jessica Lange, Gabriel Byrne, John Gallagher, Jr.,and Michael Shannon play the dysfunctional Ty-rone family, in the Roundabout’s revival o the Eu-gene O’Neill drama, directed by Jonathan Kent.(American Airlines Theatre, 227 W. 42nd St. 212-719- 1300. Opens April 27.)

Shuffle AlongAudra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and

Billy Porter star in a musical about the making oa popular African-American stage show from thenineteen-twenties. Directed by George C. Wolfe andchoreographed by Savion Glover. (Music Box, 239W. 45th St. 212-239-6200. In previews. Opens April 28.)

Signature PlaysLila Neugebauer directs a trio o one-acts: Ed-ward Albee’s “The Sandbox,” María Irene Fornés’s“Drowning,” and Adrienne Kennedy’s “Funny-house o a Negro.” (Pershing Square Signature Center,480 W. 42nd St. 212-244-7529. Previews begin May 3.)

A Streetcar Named DesireGillian Anderson and Ben Foster play the tem-pestuous pair Blanche DuBois and Stanley Ko-

walski, in Benedict Andrews’s production o theTennessee Williams drama. (St. Ann’s Warehouse,45 Water St., Brooklyn. 718-254-8779. In previews.Opens May 1.)

ToastAs part o the “Brits Off Broadway” festival, Mat-thew Kelly stars in a comedy by Richard Bean(“One Man, Two Guvnors”), in which crisis comesto a bread factory. (59E59, at 59 E. 59th St. 212-

279-4200. In previews. Opens May 1.)

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NOW PLAYING

American PsychoBenjamin Walker can’t seem to catch a break. Hisgeneric handsomeness and his height make hima natural leading man, but, instead o teasing outwhat might be interesting and different abouthim as a performer, directors tend to rely on hislooks to carry a project. Perfectly cast as the hom-icidal financier Patrick Bateman, Walker gets tobe strange, but, unfortunately, Rupert Goold’sproduction offers him little to work with. Basedon Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 novel, about nineteen-eighties consumerism and disaffection, this musi-cal has music and lyrics by Duncan Sheik, but theonly memorable numbers are the pop songs o theperiod which are sung intermittently throughout.Supported by generous performers like Heléne

Yorke and Alice Ripley, Walker works like madto make Bateman’s story matter, but it doesn’t,not much. He’s a murderous, cartoon-thin pro-tagonist built like a superhero. (Schoenfeld, 236W. 45th St. 212-239-6200.)

The DingdongIt is possible that there isn’t enough French farcein the world. Mark Shanahan’s delightful up-

date o this nineteenth-century classic takes itsspirited door-slamming to a series o vaguelynineteen-thirties, vaguely Parisian hotel rooms.The dizzying plot follows a French couple, theVatelins, and both spouses’ coteries o would-belovers—plus miscellaneous bellboys, policemen,and maids. All are determined to commit adul-tery, lure someone else into adultery, or catchtheir significant other in flagrante delicto, lead-ing to much bellowing and weeping, many loud

exclamations o lust—though relatively little con-summation o it—and endless switching o hatsand wigs. Farce requires dexterous, precise per-formances, and this cast is up to the challenge;Brad Heberlee is especially excellent in his mul-tiple roles. You won’t regret your evening in theHotel Ultimus—but keep an eye on your spouse,and your hat. (Pearl, 555 W. 42nd St. 212-563-9261.)

Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.It takes a while to understand what the writerAlice Birch is doing in this dense sixty-five-minute work, and you may still be scratchingyour head once you leave the show, but you won’tblame Birch for not spelling things out. Thetwenty-nine-year-old British playwright seems

to be less interested in narrative sense than inexploring the value o ideology, the human con-fusion that underlies political thought and evenradicalism. The cast is excellent, particularlythe great Jennifer Ikeda, who knows that thepiece is as much about words as about tryingto express onesel through limited means. Thestrong up-and-coming director Lileana Blain-Cruz doesn’t try to shoehorn more apparent



THE THEATRE

sense into Birch’s sensibility, and that’s O.K.,too. (SoHo Rep, 46 Walker St. 212-352-3101.)

Romeo & JulietThe Public’s Mobile Unit has for years been de-livering Shakespeare to audiences with limitedaccess to the arts. It’s little surprise, then, thatthis current production (directed by Lear deBes-sonet), which has already toured prisons, shel-ters, and community centers throughout the city,

has a down-home intimacy and an almost impro-visational freshness. The small and notably di-verse troupe o performers glide nimbly acrossthe floor-level stage, which is positioned ring-likein the middle o the audience. The play is com-pressed and in places contemporized (the Cap-ulet ball, at which Romeo first lays eyes on hisbeloved, is an R. & B. dance party) but remainstrue to the verbally frenzied, tragicomic spirito the original. The acting is uniformly sharp,and the two leads—Sheldon Best, as Romeo,and Ayana Workman, as Juliet—imbue the head-strong lovers with a naïve pathos and palpabletenderness. (Public, 425 Lafayette St. 212-967-7555.Through May 1.)

When I Was a Girl I Used to Screamand ShoutIn this revival o Sharman Macdonald’s 1984play, directed by John Keating for the FallenAngel Theatre Company, an Irish mother anddaughter (Aedin Moloney and Barrie Kreinik)return to the beach on the east coast o Scot-land where the family began taking vacationssome twenty-five years earlier. In their uncom-fortable dialogue, and with the help o flash-backs, we see the seeds and the results o theco-dependency, manipulation, and accusation—laced with a massive dose o guilt and sexualrepression—that have characterized the wom-en’s relationship. The actors handle the swingsin time and age well enough, but the abruptshifts in tone from wistfulness to hostility areharder to navigate. The lilt and longing one ex-pects from Irish plays are found here only inthe lovely recorded musical interludes, by theChieftains’ Paddy Moloney (Aedin’s father).The writing itsel doesn’t sing. (Clurman, 410W. 42nd St. 212-239-6200.)

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ALSO NOTABLE

Blackbird Belasco. • Bright Star Cort. • TheColor Purple Jacobs. • The Crucible WalterKerr. • Disaster! Nederlander. • Dry Powder Public. Through May 1. • Eclipsed Golden. • The

Effect Barrow Street Theatre.•

Exit Strategy Cherry Lane. • The Father Samuel J. Fried-man. • Fiddler on the Roof Broadway The-atre. • Fully Committed Lyceum. • Fun Home Circle in the Square. • A Girl Is a Half-FormedThing Baryshnikov Arts Center. Through April 30. • Hamilton Richard Rodgers. • Head ofPasses Public. Through May 1. • The Humans Helen Hayes. • King and Country: Shakespeare’sGreat Cycle of Kings BAM’s Harvey Theatre.Through May 1. • Mike Birbiglia: Thank God forJokes Lynn Redgrave. • Nathan the Wise Clas-sic Stage Company. Through May 1. • The Rob-ber Bridegroom Laura Pels. • The Royale MitziE. Newhouse. Through May 1. • The School forScandal Lucille Lortel. • School of Rock Winter

Garden. • She Loves Me Studio 54. • Straight Acorn. • Stupid Fucking Bird Pearl. • Tuck Ev-erlasting Broadhurst. • Waitress Brooks Atkin-son. • Wolf in the River Flea. I L

L U S T R A T I O N B Y D A D U S H I N

At BAM, Compagnia Finzi Pasca employs a backdrop by Salvador Dali for “La Verità.”

Dali Unpacked A contemporary circus company revivesa spectacular show curtain.

, whenSurrealism and its progenitor, psycho-analysis, were in full, disquieting bloom,the choreographer Léonide Massinecollaborated with Salvador Dali on sev-eral ballets, including one, “Mad Tristan”

(), set to excerpts from Wagner’sgreat opera. At the beginning of the piece,according to Edwin Denby’s review, there

was “a horribly confused acrobatic pas dedeux with Spirits of the Dead like shiv-ering maniacs and Spirits of Love likeenormous dandelions in seed millingabout.” The evening ended with “Tristandying for love as upstage his own repul-sive mummy is lowered into a vault ca-ressed by white wormlike dismemberedliving arms.” For Act I, Dali painted a

vast backdrop on which Tristan (presum-ably) appears with a dandelion head.Isolde holds out huge, flayed-looking,horror-movie hands to her beloved.

Those were the days! Not just of Sur-realism but of the fashion, descendingfrom Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, for get-ting “name” painters to provide back-drops and front curtains for ballets. (Pi-casso’s beautiful front curtain for theBallets Russes’ “Three Cornered Hat,”once housed at the Four Seasons, now

hangs at the New-York Historical Soci-ety.) With the triumph of abstractionand, relatedly, the collapse of ballet-

company design budgets, shows such as“Mad Tristan” became a matter for thehistory books.

Nevertheless, décors like Dali’s areappreciated in some settings—arts fes-tivals, for example. ’s Next WaveFestival, the Lincoln Center Festival, the

Avignon and Edinburgh and Sydneyfestivals: people who pay to travel tothose jamborees like a splashy décor to

look at. There are also certain genres,such as nouveau cirque , à la Cirque deSoleil, and physical theatre, à la PinaBausch, that favor wild-looking sets. Itis therefore no surprise that when, in , Dali’s Act I backdrop for “Mad Tristan” was found in a box at the Met-ropolitan Opera and offered on loan toDaniele Finzi Pasca, the director of aSwiss physical-theatre troupe, the deal

was accepted. The Compagnia FinziPasca will be at May - with a show

called “La Verità,” or “The Truth,” takingplace against Dali’s backdrop. The cur-tain is a replica (the original is beingrestored), and it’s enormous: twenty-seven by forty-five feet. And though theshow does not include Tristan and Isoldethere will be piano-playing rhinoceri,acrobats swinging on helical ladders,and also, in honor of the Massine orig-inal, people with dandelions for heads.Denby said there wasn’t much ballet in“Mad Tristan” but that it was “a first-class

mental carnival.” That, clearly, is what“La Verità” aspires to as well.

—Joan Acocella

DANCE


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which consists o crumbling, wavelike layers oconcrete and rebar. The title, “Étroits Sont lesVaisseaux,” refers to a poem by Saint-John Perse:“Narrow are the vessels, narrow our couch. Im-mense the expanse o waters, wider our empire /in the closed chambers o desire.” (Gibney Dance, 280 Broadway. 646-837-6809. April 27-30.)

Heather KravasRigorously patterned, uncompromising in their

repetitions and permutations, Kravas’s workstest a viewer’s patience and sometimes rewardit. “Play, thing” focusses her minimalist mi-croscope on the domestic sphere and domes-tic labor in three overlapping duets for six ar-resting women. (The Chocolate Factory, 5-49 49th Ave., Long Island City. 866-811-4111. April 27-30.)

Monica Bill Barnes / “Happy Hour”On Wednesdays at Gibney Dance, the happy-go-lucky dancer-choreographer Monica Bill Barnesand her partner in crime, Anna Bass, are hostinga mock after-work shindig. In a setting straightout o “The Office,” Barnes and Bass transformthemselves into guys with ties, working thecrowd with characteristic exuberance. Robbie

Saenz de Viteri plays host. (280 Broadway. 646-837-6809. April 27. Through May 25.)

Ellis Wood DanceWood’s dances have long had a feminist bent,depicting women meeting obstacles with forceand daring. In “The Juggler o Our Ladies,” shepresents phases o a woman’s life. The cast, rang-ing in age from ten to eighty, includes the cho-

DANCE

New York City BalletThe week includes three performances o “Jewels,”George Balanchine’s color-coded ode to gemstones.Each section is a world unto itself, populated by itsown fauna: wood nymphs in “Emeralds,” jazz-agetemptresses in “Rubies,” and a melancholy queenand her court in “Diamonds.” In a mixed bill titled“Classic NYCB I,” the quicksilver footwork typi-cal o the Danish ballet tradition (“BournonvilleDivertissements”) is paired with an experimental

piece by Jerome Robbins (“Moves”), in which thedancers interact without musical accompaniment.All you hear are steps, claps, and the occasionalbreath. One o Balanchine’s great Stravinsky bal-lets, “Symphony in Three Movements”—big, en-ergetic, and brash—tops off the evening. • April 26and May 3 at 7:30: “Bournonville Divertissements,”“Moves,” “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux,” and “Sym-phony in Three Movements.” • April 27-28 at 7:30and May 1 at 3: “Jewels.” • April 29 at 8 and April30 at 2: “Estancia,” “Pictures at an Exhibition,” and“Everywhere We Go.” • April 30 at 8: “Barber Vio-lin Concerto,” “N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz,” and “TheMost Incredible Thing.” (David H. Koch, LincolnCenter. 212-496-0600. Through May 29.)

Jen RosenblitIn Rosenblit’s work, people often seem to come to-gether while remaining apart. The various odd activ-ities they get up to maintain a similar relationship,digressive in sequence yet somehow linked. “ClapHands” features the intent choreographer, the dancerEffie Bowen, the musician Admanda Kobilka, and astack o fuchsia-colored felt. (Invisible Dog Art Cen-

ter, 51 Bergen St., Brooklyn. 347-560-3641. April 26-28.)

Dorrance DanceThe acronym in “ETM: Double Down” stands forelectronic tap music, a concept analogous to elec-tronic dance music. The idea is to use technology—wooden platforms equipped with sensors hookedup to computers—to augment a tap dancer’s sonicpalette. In this show, a new incarnation o one thatdébuted at Jacob’s Pillow in 2014, Michelle Dor-rance applies her skill and imagination, the mostbrilliant in tap choreography today, to experimen-tation with the new toys. The sunny B-girl EphratAsherie joins the excellent company o musiciansand hoofers. (Joyce Theatre, 175 Eighth Ave., at 19th St. 212-242-0800. April 26-May 1.)

Youth America Grand Prix Gala / “Starsof Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow”Y.A.G.P. is both a ballet competition and a cot-tage industry o global proportions. After roundupon round o competition, an army o finalists—ages nine to nineteen—come to New York for the

final showdown, followed by a gala. All the kidsare shockingly good. In the first half, the youngdancers get to show their stuff. Then, after inter-mission, there are performances—usually a se-ries o pas de deux—by big-name dancers fromaround the world. This year’s roster includes Mi-chaela DePrince, formerly o Dance Theatre oHarlem, now o Dutch National Ballet, and Xan-der Parish, o the Mariinsky. (BAM’s Howard Gil- man Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn. 718-636-4100. Final round, April 27; gala, April 28.)

Kimberly Bartosik /“Étroits Sont les Vaisseaux”Bartosik, a savvy explorer o the interstices o in-timacy, has created a duet for Joanna Kotze and

Lance Gries—both strikingly original movers—that lasts exactly twenty-four minutes and fiftyseconds. Her inspiration is sculpture, specifi-cally a work by the German artist Anselm Kiefer

reographer and her mother, the Martha Gra-ham alumna Marni Wood. The original score isby Daniel Bernard Roumain. (Joe’s Pub, 425 La- fayette St. 212-967-7555. April 29-30.)

“La MaMa Moves!”Katy Pyle and her company, Ballez, lovingly re-imagine canonical ballets to include lesbian,queer, and transgender people, mixing activismwith humor and heart. “Sleeping Beauty and the

Beast,” kicking off La MaMa’s annual monthlongfestival, mashes together more than the two fairytales in its title, folding in allusions to LowerEast Side garment workers striking in 1893 andAIDS activists protesting in 1993. A crowd o ar-chetypal characters dances to house music andTchaikovsky played live by the Queer Urban Or-chestra. The opening weekend also features aprogram shared by Yvonne Meier, Amanda Lou-laki, and Paula Josa-Jones. (La Mama, 74A E. 4th St. 212-475-7710. April 30-May 1. Through May 29.)

“Works & Process” / Ryan McNamaraThe Guggenheim Museum’s Peter B. Lewis The-atre, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, is as ec-centrically shaped as the rest o the building.

That’s a challenge and an opportunity for a cho-reographer, and it has inspired McNamara, anartist who often works with dancers, to create“Battleground,” a kind o sci-fi turf-war ballet.Different zones o the space are defended byteams o dancers—who include some ringers likeDylan Crossman—wearing costumes imprintedwith images o their own faces. (Fifth Ave. at 89th St. 212-423-3575. May 2-4.)



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MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES

Metropolitan Museum

“Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms othe Ancient World”Closed for renovations until 2019, Berlin’s Perga-mon Museum has sent the Met its greatest mar-bles and effigies from the centuries after Alexanderthe Great, resulting in this epic study o how Greekideas and images were transmitted and transformedin western Asia. The city o Pergamon (present-dayBergama, Turkey) was the capital o the Attalid dy-nasty, whose power in the third and second centuriesB.C. was expressed through a new style o art, lessidealistic and more baroque than its Athenian coun-terpart. A towering, ten-foot-tall statue o Athena,now armless, shows the scale o Pergamon’s new ar-tistic ambitions. Even the smaller works convey theshifts in regional power: a delicate terra-cotta stat-

uette o a victorious athlete has the washboard absand strong thighs o the Greek original on which it

was based, but the figure was elongated for Asiantastes. The transition from Athenian restraint toHellenistic luxury comes through in a display o op-ulent jewelry, including a gold diadem topped by a

figure o Nike. War, too, offered a pretext for Perga-mon’s artists to Hellenize a dying Gaul, seen bleed-ing from his abdomen. More than a mere block-buster, this show is a radical and wholly rewardingrethinking o the art we call “Greek.” Through July 17.

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GALLERIES—UPTOWN

Joe BradleyThe ambitious American painter, who shot to prom-inence ten years ago with patchy monochromes andslapdash primitivism, settles into mid-career withclever new abstract paintings. On flag-proportionedcanvases, imperfect circles o gray and green jostleagainst fields o primary colors, Adolph Gottlieb-

style; red bleeds through beneath washes o black,evidence o trial and error. Several cartoonish

works on paper (a screaming chicken) and someghastly sculpture (a worn-out boot) are here forthose who miss Bradley’s bad manners, but therumbling paintings, echoing with confidence andthe effort o invention, affirm that he has far moreserious goals than disarray. Through May 3. (Ga-

gosian, 980 Madison Ave., at 76th St. 212-744-2313.)

Richard LearoydThe British photographer rigged up a camera ob-

scura in his studio for these idiosyncratic portraitsthat convey a preternatural sense o depth. Youngwomen pose in an empty, pale-gray space, their facesoften turned away from the camera’s meticulous ap-praisal. Learoyd’s figures appear so lifelike it’s as ithey were trapped inside the pictures. This imme-diacy, which does not translate when the imagesare reproduced, is remarkably seductive in person,but its impact is undercut by the awkward formal-ity o the models’ poses and by Learoyd’s penchantfor repetition to the point o redundancy. Through

April 30. (Pace/MacGill, 32 E. 57th St. 212-759-7999.)

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GALLERIES—CHELSEA

Sharon CoreThe photographer, who kicked off her career withpictures that painstakingly re-created Wayne Thie-baud’s pastries, continues to pilfer from paint-ings. In her new series, she took inspiration fromseventeenth-century Dutch scenes o forest floors,for which she cultivated botanical specimensin a greenhouse. For all their exquisite artifice,Core’s new pictures revel in decay and wildness.Snails slither across bright, wet leaves; pink flow-ers collapse in a pile o petals; a toad peers fromthe shadows, camouflaged in the dirt. Through

May 7. (Richardson, 525 W. 22nd St. 646-230-9610.)

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GALLERIES—DOWNTOWN

Yve Laris CohenWhen Hurricane Sandy struck, the surging watersflooded the basement o the Westbeth artists’ complexand destroyed much o the archive (including sets) othe Martha Graham Dance Company, which had justtaken up residence there. Laris Cohen, a young artistwhose work revolves around dance, is reconstruct-ing one o Graham’s lost sets, which was designed byIsamu Noguchi for the 1958 ballet “Embattled Gar-den.” Throughout the run o the show, the artist per-forms; one recent afternoon, Laris Cohen was cuttingwood into the sinuous forms designed by Noguchi.By the show’s end, Noguchi’s set will be movingly, iimperfectly, reconstituted; for now, each orphaned

part on the floor is a theatrical memento mori.Through May 15. (Company, 88 Eldridge St. 646-756-4547.)

Jessi Reaves“Meaning is use,” Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote.This young American artist clearly agrees, as shedissolves the distinction between sculpture andfurniture. (Imagine Matthew Barney and MikaRottenberg collaborating on a project for DesignWithin Reach.) A plywood shel is sheathed in avinyl wetsuit; rolls o yellowed upholstery foamare bolted together into a makeshift couch. IsamuNoguchi’s signature table, with its ovoid glass topand curved wood base, is reimagined with twodoors o a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and to make thesurface level Reaves has shimmed one with glue

and sawdust. The coldness o modernism takeson the warmth o bodies, and quotation becomes,in Reaves’s formation, not just sincere but erotic.Through June 5. (Donahue, 99 Bowery. 646-896-1368.)

ART

Billy Sullivan’s spirited pastel portrait “Cookie” (2016) is on view at the Kaufmann Repetto gallery. C O U R T E S Y

K A U F M A N R E P E T T O M I L A N O / N E W Y

O R K A N D B I L L Y S U L L I V A N



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NOW PLAYING

The Family Fang An adaptation o the novel by

Kevin Wilson, about the homecoming o twoyoung adults whose parents are famous per-formance artists. Directed by Jason Bateman,who stars, with Nicole Kidman and Christo-pher Walken. Opening April 29. (In limited re-

lease.) • Keanu A comedy, starring Key & Peeleas two friends who pose as drug dealers to recovera stolen cat. Directed by Peter Atencio. Opening April 29. (In wide release.) • Viktoria Reviewed inNow Playing. Opening April 29. (In limited release.)

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NOW PLAYING

The Beaches of AgnèsStarting alone on a beach, the eighty-year-old di-

rector Agnès Varda prepares for the serious playand heartfelt whimsy o this filmed autobiography,from 2008. When, moments later, under her exact-ing direction, her crew sets up a rickety array o an-tique mirrors on that beach, she establishes her ret-rospective view as a truth that’s inseparable fromthe fictions o her imagination. Though Varda of-fers a more or less chronological tour o the sites (inFrance and elsewhere) and the sights (her movies,photographs, and art projects) o her life, her mainorder o business is love. In clever, freely associativeset pieces, she sparks encounters with family mem-bers and long-unseen friends who guide her spokenreminiscences. The emotional core o the film is Var-da’s life with her husband, the director Jacques Demy(who died in 1990), who, even now, continues to in-spire her. Uninhibited about sex, generous in her af-fections, worldly-wise, blending tender recollectionswith self-deprecating antics, Varda, free from fearand shame, turns her tale o a life lived in art into awork o art in its own right, and one o her best—arapturous tribute to life itself. In French. —Richard Brody (French Institute Alliance Française; May 3.)

CriminalKevin Costner, in one o his better performances,plays Jericho Stewart, an emotionless career crim-inal who submits to the implanting in his brain oa dead C.I.A. agent’s memories. The absurd storyinvolves the agency’s attempt to recover the agent’sknowledge o an imminent cyber-terrorism plot. In

the film’s boilerplate storytelling, Costner’s charac-ter is eventually pursued by sundry nefarious vil-lains, as well as the C.I.A., and he goes on the run.As he gradually pieces together the memories o thedead agent, he uncovers sinister doings and also, sur-prisingly, some emotional epiphanies along the way.The movie is a little more fun than it has any rightto be, thanks to its super-serious cast (includingTommy Lee Jones, Ryan Reynolds, Gary Oldman,and Gal Gadot) and the straight-faced approach toits ridiculous shenanigans. Directed, confidently,by Ariel Vromen. —Bruce Diones (In wide release.)

DemolitionA merry tale o mourning. The opening minutes o Jean-Marc Vallée’s new film show the widowing o

a smooth and steady banker named Davis Mitchell(Jake Gyllenhaal). His wife, Julia (Heather Lind),is killed in a car crash; Davis, sitting beside her, isunharmed. Far from crumpling in his bereavement,

he becomes an aggressor—venting his dolor notagainst his fellow-men but against hard and wreck-able objects, including his computer, his fridge, andthe walls o his house. Gyllenhaal brings his usual

hot-eyed intensity to the project, and you long forthe movie to follow his lead, and to find out whatdepths o destruction await. But Vallée and hisscreenwriter, Bryan Sipe, pull back from the brink,and what we get instead is a soft-edged saga o re-newal, leavened with comic riffs and closing withimplausible good cheer. Still, there are points o in-terest along the way; a peculiar subplot, for exam-ple, brings Davis into contact with Karen (NaomiWatts), who works for a vending-machine company.What binds them is not love, still less desire, buta conspiratorial friendship between two woundedsouls—or three, to be precise, since Karen’s teen-age son (the lively Judah Lewis) is equally in needo emotional rescue. —Anthony Lane (Reviewed in our issue of 4/18/16.) (In wide release.)

Elvis & NixonThis comic fictionalization, directed by Liza John-son, o the events behind the famous 1970 Oval Of-fice photo o the King and the President is a giddyhistorical delight. The premise is rooted in pathos:Elvis Presley, no longer at the crest o popularity,inveighing against the Beatles in particular and theAge o Aquarius over all, wants to volunteer forthe war on drugs and wants Nixon to swear him inas a federal agent. The main drama is whether themeeting will ever take place; the story pivots on El-vis’s friendship with the film editor Jerry Schilling(Alex Pettyfer), whose devotion hits its limit. Mi-chael Shannon plays Elvis with understated cooland sly swagger, turning a skillful impersonationinto a performance that’s filled with empathetic en-ergy. The script, by Joey Sagal, Hanala Sagal, andCary Elwes, shows Presley in a startling range oordinary contexts that highlight all the more his ex-traordinary character. As for Kevin Spacey’s incar-nation o Nixon, it, too, passes quickly from man-nerisms into a thoughtful effort to capture a singularworld view. Johnson stages the action with delicateattention to gestures as well as to visual and tonalbalance. The dialogue sparkles with gems o his-torical allusion and perceptive asides, and the ac-tors virtually sing it; the film plays like a whirl-ing sociopolitical operetta. —R.B. (In wide release.)

Everybody Wants Some!!

The new film from Richard Linklater is one ohis sprightliest. It is set at a Texas college on thethreshold o a new school year, with freshmen like Jake (Blake Jenner) arriving, in mild trepidation,to begin the next installment o their lives. Classesstart in a matter o days, and, until then, pleasure isunleashed. Jake, who is on the baseball team, dwellsin a house infested with his teammates: partygoerslike Roper (Ryan Guzman), Dale (J. Quinton John-son), and the silver-tongued Finn (Glen Powell).Some are still callow boys, while others, like thehypercompetitive McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin),already bristle like grown men. The year is 1980,and songs from the period litter the soundtrack,but Linklater’s happiest gift is to transform the ac-tion—you can barely call it a plot—into a dance to

the music o time. He makes room for each char-acter to breathe, so that none o them are left out; just when the movie seems in danger o slacken-ing into a free-for-all, he introduces Beverly (Zoey

MOVIES



MOVIES

Deutch), a performing-arts major, who beguiles Jakeand bestows a measure o calm. The finale, like thato Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused,” partakes oan exhausted bliss. —A.L. (4/11/16) (In wide release.)

The Jungle BookThe latest Disney movie is a loyal adaptation,and the loyalty is strictly in-house. The director,

Jon Favreau, and his screenwriter, Justin Marks,honor Disney’s own animated version, from 1967,

rather than Kipling’s original texts. Live action re-places the finely drawn cartoon; given the tumult ocomputer-generated images (the whole thing wasfilmed in Los Angeles), viewers may struggle to es-tablish where the liveliness resides. Mowgli (NeelSethi), at least, is a recognizable human, but theurge to root for him is tempered by the bumptious-ness o his tone; reassuring though it is to see himbefriended by Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley)and Baloo (Bill Murray), you can’t help thinkingthat a more natural fate for such a child would beto end up as breakfast for Shere Khan (Idris Elba).Other old hands include Kaa (Scarlett Johansson)and King Louie (Christopher Walken), both owhom appear to have suffered a startling inflationsince 1967; the coils o the python are now as thick as

a tree. The movie is scrupulous and richly detailed,yet peculiarly shorn o charm, and nobody seems tohave decided how much o a musical it should be;Murray sings “The Bare Necessities,” Walken onlyhal sings “I Wan’na Be Like You,” as i he were RexHarrison in “My Fair Lady,” and Johansson’s de-lectable crooning o “Trust in Me” is consigned tothe final credits. —A.L. (4/25/16) (In wide release.)

Louder Than BombsThe Norwegian director Joachim Trier makes hisEnglish-language début. The story feels small yettangled and torn, littered with scraps o what hasalready occurred. Gene Reed (Gabriel Byrne), whoused to be an actor o some note, has lost his wife,Isabelle (Isabelle Huppert), a celebrated war pho-tographer, in a car crash. It may have been suicide,as Gene and his elder son, Jonah (Jesse Eisenberg),are aware, but the younger son, Conrad (DevinDruid), still thinks that the death was accidental.That does not soothe his suffering; we watch hisimaginings o the smash, filmed in slow motionand poised between flashback and dream. Otherpieces o plot—too many, perhaps—are added tothe pile. Isabelle, we learn, had an affair with a col-league (David Strathairn); Gene goes to bed withhis son’s English teacher (Amy Ryan); Jonah, a newfather, sleeps with an old flame (Rachel Brosna-han). Such flings are far more desperate than ro-mantic, and the mood throughout is one o a wan-dering distress; these people have been struck by

grie and somehow bent out o shape. I the dramaholds together, it is largely because o Byrne and hisregretful smile. —A.L. (4/18/16) (In limited release.)

NinaLike the recent bio-pics about Miles Davis andChet Baker, Cynthia Mort’s drama about NinaSimone is centered on a troubled time when theartist withdrew from public performance andthen made a return to the limelight with the helpo a new companion. In 1995, Simone (played byZoe Saldana) pulls a gun on a Los Angeles rec-ord producer and ends up in a psychiatric ward.Hours before returning to her home in France,she recruits her hospital nurse, Clifton Hender-son (David Oyelowo), as her travelling compan-

ion and then her manager. Bipolar, alcoholic, andprone to public outbursts, Simone can’t get book-ings. But with funds dwindling she’s motivatedto shape up; helped by Clifton and her former

manager (Ronald Guttman), she makes a trium-phant comeback. Mort intercuts the action withflashbacks to Simone’s childhood and her days oglory, as well as to an earlier interview in whichSimone discusses her art and her life. Respect-fully factual in its over-all contours but sensa-tional and sentimental nonetheless, the moviereduces Simone’s life to clichés about hope; it re-places the creative drive with the commercial one,the artist with the celebrity. Saldana—misguidedly

wearing skin-darkening makeup—throws herselinto the role with admirable intensity but withoutthe artist’s sense o musical possession; she dis-plays the reckless force o Simone’s personalitybut not her originality. —R.B. (In limited release.)

One Day Pina Asked . . .Starting from the modest premise o document-ing several months o Pina Bausch’s performancesand rehearsals in the summer o 1983, the directorChantal Akerman realized one o the greatest oall syntheses o dance and cinema. She films theperformers with a poised camera; her incisive an-gles and smooth pan shots emphasize the dances’visual counterpoint and overlapping rhythms. InBausch’s stagings, as in Akerman’s dramas, or-

dinary gestures are emphasized and formalizedinto dances, and Akerman films Bausch’s dancersas she films the actors in such movies as “JeanneDielman” and “Toute une Nuit.” Observing thedancers behind the scenes and in their dressingrooms as they dress, smoke, apply makeup, andsing, Akerman sees their preparations and medita-tions as continuous with their public performances;her interviews with members o the company areechoed in their dancing. I Bausch’s choreographyno longer existed, Akerman’s films could be ex-cerpted to convey something o its essence—andBausch herself, serenely avowing her poetic aspi-rations, becomes one o Akerman’s characters. Re-leased in 1983. —R.B. (BAM Cinématek; April 28.)

Salò, or the 120 Days of SodomPier Paolo Pasolini’s last film, from 1975, is also ina way the ultimate film: its representation o de-pravity may be unsurpassable. Pasolini sets theMarquis de Sade’s “120 Days o Sodom” in 1944-45, in a sumptuous villa in Mussolini’s Repub-lic o Salò, the Nazi puppet regime o northernItaly, where four potentates subject a phalanx oyoung men and women to their limitless powerand pleasure. In the stately grand salon, with itspaintings and piano, two grandes dames lyricallyrecite Sadean tales o obscene degradation to theaccompaniment o Chopin as the men overseethe rituals o the house—rape, torture, coproph-agy, mutilation, and murder—which Pasolini de-

picts clearly, unflinchingly, even lyrically. Paso-lini suggests that the classical values o Westerncivilization and the ostensibly progressive mo-dernity that’s based on them are steeped in theblood o innocents. This film is essential to haveseen but impossible to watch: a viewer may findlife itsel defiled beyond redemption by the sim-ple fact that such things can be shown or evenimagined. In Italian. —R.B. (Metrograph; April 29.)

Tale of TalesThe Italian director Matteo Garrone is best knownfor “Gomorrah” (2008), a plunge into the crimi-nal clans o Naples. At first glance, his new movie,set in imaginary lands, deep in the myth-riddledpast, seems like quite a swerve. But his source is

also Neapolitan, Giambattista Basile, whose col-lection o fairy stories—earthy, bracing, and un-sentimental—was printed in the sixteen-thirties.Three o the fables, with monarchs at their heart,

have been plundered for the film. The first king(Toby Jones) rears a giant flea and sees his daugh-ter (Bebe Cave) carried away by an ogre, the sec-ond (John C. Reilly) battles a sea beast for the sakeo his childless wife (Salma Hayek), and the third(Vincent Cassel) is an inexhaustible satyr, trickedby a pair o wizened sisters (Shirley Henderson andHayley Carmichael). Garrone makes only a paltryattempt to interlock the narratives, and the finalconvocation is an awkward affair; yet the movie

nonetheless holds firm, bound by its miraculousmood. Wonders are everywhere (i you slice intoa tree, it will bleed water, like a spring), as is a ca-sual carnality. Luxury entwines with filth. Fol-lowing Basile, Garrone grasps a basic rule o folk-lore: nobody must flinch at prodigious events, forthey are part o the mortal deal. —A.L. (4/25/16)(In limited release.)

ViktoriaThe Bulgarian director Maya Vitkova’s epoch-spanning family drama about Communism,motherhood, and freedom ingeniously blendspersonal life and grand history, earnest passionand tragic absurdity in a mighty outpouring oimagination. The action starts in 1979, when a

young librarian, Boryana (Irmena Chichikova),refuses to have a child with her husband (DimoDimov), a doctor, unless they emigrate to theUnited States. But when an attempted self-induced abortion fails, the baby, Viktoria, bearsthe mark: she’s born without a belly button.This odd distinction is given a political slant.Viktoria is publicly celebrated by the country’sreal-life dictator, Todor Zhivkov (played byGeorgi Spasov), who envisions a workforce owomen freed from pregnancy. Nine years later,the child, granted a chauffeur and a hot line toZhivkov, is a Communist spoiled brat and theterror o her classmates. Meanwhile, Boryanarefuses to let her mother (Mariana Krumova),a lifelong Party member, see Viktoria. Then,the Iron Curtain falls and the balance o familypower shifts. Vitkova’s spare, precise yet richlytextured images sing with restrained emotionand natural metaphors and catch the charac-ters in self-revealing gestures o an overwhelm-ing intimacy. Women’s bodies are the center othe film, with milk, blood, and even intrauter-ine images joining political pageantry and pro-test in a quietly fierce yet compassionate vi-sion. —R.B. (In limited release.)

1

REVIVALS AND FESTIVALS

Titles with a dagger are reviewed.

BAM Cinématek The films o Chantal Akerman. April 28 at 7: “One Day Pina Asked . . .”F • April 29 at 7 and 9:30: “La Captive” (2000). Film Society ofLincoln Center “Queer Cinema Before Stonewall.” April 27 at 4:30 and April 29 at 9:15: “Love Meet-ings” (1964, Pier Paolo Pasolini). • May 1 at 3:30: “Portrait o Jason” (1967, Shirley Clarke). FrenchInstitute Alliance Française “Creative Encounters.” May 3 at 4 and 7:30: “The Beaches o Agnès.”F IFC Center “Becoming Meryl Streep.” April 28 at7:30: “The Deer Hunter” (1978, Michael Cimino),introduced by Michael Schulman, o The NewYorker, the author o “Her Again: Becoming MerylStreep.”Metrograph “Fassbinder’s Top Ten.” April

29-May 1 (call for showtimes): “Fassbinder: To Love

Without Demands” (2015, Christian Braad Thom-sen). • April 29 at 1:15, 4:45, and 8: “Salò, or the 120Days o Sodom.”F • Special screening. May 1 at 1: “Ashes and Embers” (1982, Haile Gerima).



I L L U S T R A T I

O N B Y C U N S H I

Uptown Anthems Naughty by Nature salute a quartercentury of call-and-response.

, stripes, half-zip windbreakers, tucked T-shirts, long nails, white jeans—it’s atrip to see how many trends immortal-ized in old rap videos, like those of thegroup Naughty by Nature, are still out-fitting city stompers twenty-five years

later. Chalk it up to wistful nostalgia if you must, but don’t underestimate theenduring appeal of a denim bucket hatin any decade. The looks may still carry,but things surely sound different; pop’stolerance for naughty has grown, shak-ing off the chummy naïveté that al-lowed a song to shoehorn an infidelity

jingle into daily family car rides andhigh-school dances across the country.

In , Anthony Criss, VincentBrown, and Keir Gist, two rappers and

a d.j. from East Orange, New Jersey,better known as Treach, Vin Rock, andDJ Kay Gee, immortalized a three-letteracronym for cheaters worldwide. “O.P.P.”tucked a chorus about sleeping with thespoken-for under a Jackson sample, tothe tune of a few million copies sold andpop-culture infamy. “The record proba-bly would have been banned if radio hadknown what we was talkin’ about,” Treachremembers, in an excerpt from the book“Check the Technique, Volume ” in

Rolling Stone, explaining that he felt theneed to spell out the song’s concept tobroaden its appeal. “It took them a year

or two to figure out what it meant. If you weren’t listening or weren’t really intohip-hop, it wasn’t easy.”

Naughty by Nature followed up with years of hits that struck the same balance.Between the belt-along hooks on songslike “Hip Hop Hooray,” “Jamboree,” and“Feel Me Flow,” the writers indulged intheir intricate thousand-piece syllabicpuzzles: “Serve words with nerve, em-bedded, I said it / word, damn, you nerd,

man, you heard.” Years later, Eminem would cite Treach verses like these asfoundational to his own career.

Last year, Naughty by Nature an-nounced a tour commemorating twenty-five years in music; on April , they’llperform their fan favorites at Manhattan’sStage . Once youth-culture arbiters,many rap acts have settled into moremythicized careers: stories are mined forbio-pics, incumbents debate their prede-cessors, and undersung heroes are lost to

time. It’s a boon to catch shows like these, which celebrate what has possibly becomeprivileged musical knowledge, akin to

jazz’s cavernous artist legacies. Rappersset trends, but also legitimize them. Tothis day, the genre’s hit-makers are tasked

with capturing widespread sentiments inlocal dialects: to get people everywhereto care about what kids are saying, wear-ing, and doing in a particular place andtime. Now that Naughty’s work haseclipsed the slang and styles it once doc-

umented, only the universalities remainto be enjoyed. Who’s down?

—Matthew Trammell

NIGHT LIFE

1

ROCK AND POP

Musicians and night-club proprietors lead complicated lives; it’s advisable to check

in advance to confirm engagements.

Juan AtkinsFor young laptop producers, making music withoutsoftware might be like typing with your eyes closed.The visual interface provides a spotter that isn’t vital

yet simplifies the process drastically, which makesthe precision and emotion found in pre-P.C. releasesfrom the Godfather o Techno, Juan Atkins, and hisDetroit ilk all the more impressive. “Clear,” whichAtkins released with Richard Davis as Cybotron in1982, is yanked forward by an uphill arpeggio thatreappeared in various records for the next three de-cades—by definition a sound o the future. His KorgMS-10 experiments were soon dubbed “techno,” andeven then, Atkins stressed it as a progression noto music but o technology: “stretching it, ratherthan simply using it.” (Good Room, 98 Meserole Ave.,

Brooklyn. 718-349-2373. April 30.)

Juliana HuxtableWhen asked what her biggest fear was, Huxtable re-

cently remarked: “Being consumed by a zeitgeist Idreamed o as a hopeful child and being spit out byit, cut off from the oxygen needed to sustain a child-like corpus against the astringent effect o the densebreadth o interview questions that occur over andover again.” In other words, she fears getting jaded,and it’s a worry for anyone in her position. Thetwenty-seven-year-old trans d.j., writer, and artiststepped out in pockets o Manhattan’s subterrane forreadings o her jagged poetry and a stint walking forDKNY, before performing at MOMA last Novem-ber. The club sets at her party series “Shock Value”are engulfing: a bevy o remixes and rarities spanningthe Chemical Brothers and Beyoncé served over harddrums between precious breaks for air. (Trans-Pecos,915 Wyckoff Ave., Queens. thetranspecos.com. April 29.)

James Chance and the ContortionsDuring its brie existence, from 1977 to 1979, thisNo Wave group made a deep impression on NewYork’s downtown music scene. Chance (né JamesSiegfried), a frenetic alto saxophonist and singerwho moved to New York from Milwaukee in 1975,drew inspiration from jazz and funk influences (es-pecially James Brown) as well as the punk bandsfrom CBGB. Chance’s music, first captured on BrianEno’s landmark 1978 compilation, “No New York,” isbuilt around dissonant interlocking parts supportinghis aggressive, almost unhinged vocals. Back then,Chance’s stage theatrics sometimes mirrored the vio-lence that coursed through his sound; at a 1978 show,

for example, he famously scuffled with the rockcritic Robert Christgau. Though he has mellowedsince then, recent performances o the re-formedContortions have remained fiery. (Market Hotel,

1140 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn. markethotel.org. April 29.)

Tori KellyKelly’s début album, “Unbreakable Smile,” is abatch o capable pop shaped by the best minds inthe business. She’s managed by Scooter Braun, thethirty-two-year-old exec who launched his careerwith Justin Bieber and just signed Kanye West,and her album was produced by the pop SvengaliMax Martin. But as an alum o television compe-titions and YouTube covers, Kelly’s been bankingon her voice coming before her personnel since the

onset o her career; it’s a formidable, malleable one,rising tall above punchy drums and horns on thechart mainstay “Nobody Love” and offsetting EdSheeran’s earthy timbre on the duet “I Was Made



ABOVE & BEYOND

IndieCade EastI the international festival o independent videogames known as IndieCade is the Sundance oits field, this East Coast offshoot might be theTribeca Film Festival. The independent gamingindustry has grown into a vital incubator o newideas—and the technologies with which to im-plement them—particularly with the advent oV.R. riling the field. The three-day event, heldat the Museum o the Moving Image, featuresarcade stations with unreleased games, as wellas talks and presentations that engage with theform critically and examine its changing place inthe world, from the use o video games in schoolsand libraries to a retrospective o titles set in NewYork City. (36-01 35th Ave., Queens. 718-777-6800.

April 29- May 1.)

1

READINGS AND TALKS

Dixon PlaceThe PEN American Center is devoted to ad-vancing free expression in literature and the-atre and providing legal and financial sup-port for writers internationally. As part othe PEN World Voices Festival, founded bySalman Rushdie and held since 2005, a groupo acclaimed Mexican and Mexican- Americanauthors and playwrights offer “Mexico in TwoActs,” a lecture and panel discussion “designedto expose hidden cultural and political real-ities.” The playwright Sabina Berman pre-sents the first act, in which speakers discussthe country’s socioeconomic and culturalstate; in Act II, the Spanish-language authors

Jennifer Clement, Claudio Lomnitz, PedroÁngel Palou, and Marcela Turati respond to theideas o Act I. (161A Chrystie St. 212-219-0736.

April 27 at 7:30.)

Joe’s PubThe writer and comedian Catie Lazarus has hostedthe monthly talk show and podcast “Employee othe Month” since 2010, talking with guests like JonStewart, Barney Frank, and Miss Piggy. Her un-orthodox interview style and background in psy-chology help Lazarus get stories out o her sub-

jects which others cannot, including David Simon,the creator o “The Wire,” who this spring recalleda scene from his teen years. His father was beingheld hostage in the 1977 Hanafi Siege, and whenhe received the news, Simon was terrified, but re-lieved that it got him out o high-school detention:“I have to tell this now, because you brought thisup!” To celebrate the six-year milestone, she invitesthe musician Kyp Malone, o the band TV on theRadio; Julia Cameron, the author o “The Artist’sWay”; the MacArthur Fellow and award-winningplaywright Suzan Lori-Parks; and a bevy o musicalguests. (425 Lafayette St. 212-539-8778. April 28 at 7.)

N.Y.U. Silver CenterIn his new book, “A History o Violence: Livingand Dying in Central America,” Óscar Martíneztakes a close look at the gang violence that plaguesHonduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Martínez isan investigative reporter for the influential onlinenews outlet El Faro; his first book, “The Beast,”consists o essays first published on the news site,providing early firsthand accounts o the harrow-ing life faced by Central American migrants. Theirstories are now woven into the political discourseo an election year: with news o truces possiblyquelling stubborn conflicts in El Salvador and ref-ugee crises becoming national concerns, Martínez’swork arrives at a vital juncture. He launches his lat-

est book in conversation with Francisco Goldmanand the New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson,moderated by Diana Taylor. (Hemmerdinger Hall,

100 Washington Square E. versobooks.com. May 2 at 6.) I L L U S T R A T I O N

B Y P A B L O A

M A R G O

for Loving You.” Her New York shows have growneach year; a second night at the historic BeaconTheatre was added after the first quickly sold out.(Broadway at 74th St. 212-465-6500. April 28-29.)

Bunny WailerThis reggae pioneer and founding member o the leg-endary Wailers treats the city to a rare appearance,playing his first local show in years. Wailer contrib-uted to his band’s groundbreaking 1973 album, “Catch

a Fire,” before cutting his own rich hits through theseventies and eighties. Wailer has since drawn ac-claim and controversy as an outspoken guardian owhat he sees as Jamaica’s cultural property: in oneinstance, when Snoop Dogg briefly feigned a con-version to Rastafarianism while promoting a docu-mentary with Vice in 2012, Wailer appeared in sup-port but then denounced the project when he learnedo its “commercialized” nature. (B.B. King BluesClub & Grill, 237 W. 42nd St. 212-997-4144. May 1.)

Young ThugOn a recent segment on CNN, Lyor Cohen, a bull-ish record executive, spoke to a wily recording art-ist from Atlanta named Jeffrey Williams, who lis-tened and responded intently. “Your fans want to

hear from you,” Cohen prodded, advising the rap-per known as Young Thug to promote his releasesmore directly on social media. Williams pushedback, arguing that obfuscation was his core promo-tional tenet. “I don’t want everybody just to know,”he said. It’s a riveting exchange between a veteransuit with an unrivalled stat sheet, now heading upa new label, 300 Entertainment, and an oddball au-teur who has beguiled his way into Vogue spreads andKanye West album credits. Part o Young Thug’sappeal is the relatable in his whimsy. His deliveryis tangled with Atlanta parlance, unwinding intostraight lines that are worth the work: “I’m livinglife like a beginner, and this is only the beginning,”he raps on the crossover single “Lifestyle,” despitehaving recorded a career’s worth o albums and mix-tapes at just twenty-three. (Playstation Theatre, 1515

Broadway. 212-930-1950. May 2.)

1

JAZZ AND STANDARDS

Ehud Asherie“Shuffle Along,” Ehud Asherie’s new album,touches upon tunes by Eubie Blake and NobleSissle which will be heard in the upcoming re-vival o the historic 1921 Broadway production othe same name, but the skillful pianist isn’t ridinganyone’s coattails. The project—actually recordedtwo years ago—reveals a passionate craftsman joy-fully at ease with pre-swing idioms. (Mezzrow, 163

W. 10th St. mezzrow.com. April 28.)

Billy HartHe’s decades older than his bandmates, but this il-lustrious drummer—here celebrating his seventy-fifth birthday—has no trouble keeping the pianistEthan Iverson, the tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, and the bassist Ben Street on their toes, bring-ing the same rhythmic acuity that he honed with,among many others, Herbie Hancock, PharoahSanders, and Stan Getz. As vital a presence asHart remains, this quartet is, in effect, a coöper-ative ensemble, and the tonal weave it achieves isa glory o twenty-first-century jazz. (Jazz Stan-

dard, 116 E. 27th St. 212-576-2232. April 28-May 1.)

Donald Harrison, Ron Carter,Billy Cobham TrioIt’s one o those combinations o instrumentalpersonalities which don’t quite make sense on

paper yet are smashing successes onstage; thismultigenerational trio brings together a New Or-leans neo-bebopper with a funky streak (Har-rison), a virtuosic percussionist who codifiedFusion drumming (Cobham), and a bass super-star who has yet to be confounded by any genre(Carter). Whether waxing lyrical or swinging fe-rociously, these three bring out the best in oneanother. (Blue Note, 131 W. 3rd St. 212-475-8592. April 27-May 1.)

Donny McCaslin/Frank Kimbrough QuartetThose expecting McCaslin to offer more o thecathartic new jazz-saxophone effusions he con-tributed to David Bowie’s final album may bein for a pleasant surprise when he unites withthe historically informed pianist Kimbrough ina tribute to the late tenor saxophone giant Joe

Henderson. Here, McCaslin may be more boundto tradition, but his accustomed dexterity andventuresome spirit are sure to seep through.(Jazz at Kitano, 66 Park Ave., at 38th St. 212-885-7119. April 29-30.)

Trio 3The saxophonist Oliver Lake, the bassist Reg-gie Workman, and the drummer Andrew Cy-rille are patriarchs o avant-garde jazz, and are

ready and willing, even at retirement age, tohead first into the musical breach. Their con-tinued commitment and ardent resolve, exhib-ited in more than two decades as an interactivetrio with a brace o fine recordings, should be amodel for contemporary players. (Village Van-

guard, 178 Seventh Ave. S., at 11th St. 212-255-4037. April 26-May 1.)

NIGHT LIFE



TABLES FOR TWO

MáLà Project First Ave. (--)

“” is an efficient couplingof the Chinese characters for “numbing”and “spicy,” traits synonymous with Si-chuanese cooking. Capable of clearing themost insidious of blocked sinuses, food

cooked with mala can also bring stoics totears. Such is the enduring power of mala that it has, of late, been transubstantiatedfrom its renowned liquid form—hot pot,a bubbly soup—to its newer, hipper cousin,the dry pot.

Legend has it that dry pot—a sauce-less medley of anything small enough tobe tossed in a wok, birthed in Chongqing,the sprawling metropolis at the heart ofSichuan—hit the big time only after afew Beijing chefs, on vacation in Sichuan,

imported the method north in the earlyaughts. From there, it has snuck onto themenus of Chinatown hideaways, fre-quently mischaracterized as casserole.MáLà Project is the spirited East Villagecreation of a twenty-three-year-old Hebeinative, who, in her refusal to “cook down”to First Avenue hipsters, gives the dishthe star treatment it deserves.

From a menu of sixty or so meats and vegetables, you choose ingredients (threeto six are suggested per person) and, more

important, the preferred level of spiciness.(Of the four levels, the lowest is non-spicy, and the highest, super-spicy, might

require a fire extinguisher.) TraditionalChinese favorites like beef tendon,tongue, intestine, and artery (a must-tryfor the uninitiated) merrily jostle withmore conventional choices, like wakame ,tofu skin, lotus root, and king oystermushrooms. When an adventurous first-timer pointed to the unfamiliar itemrooster’s XXX, the handsome Uighur

waiter deadpanned, “Chicken testicles,ma’am. One order?”Dry pots arrive in huge bamboo

bowls, slick with oil, bathed in sesameseeds, and heaped with cilantro. Cumin,ginger, cardamom, licorice, and twentyother spices are tossed in, but all you’llfeel is that signature mouth-tinglingthat renders self-control futile andmakes consumption an exercise instamina. To cool the tongue, you mightland on the Xiangxi Fried Rice, an

innocuous-seeming staple that packs anincendiary punch, with Chinese baconand bird’s-eye chilies. Better to go for“candy garlic,” a grain-liquor chaser thatdoubles as a temporary palate emollient.One evening, two Sichuanese and aBeijing native took a break from theirmedium-spicy meal to reminisce abouttheir first dry pot in China. “It can defi-nitely develop into an addiction,” onesaid. “Once, it was all I consumed for a

week.” The three friends looked at each

other and the pot. Then they dug backin. (Dishes $-$; ingredients $-$.)

—Jiayang Fan

FßD & DRINK

Sycamore 1118 Cortelyou Rd., Brooklyn (347-240-5850)

A single night at Sycamore, a sprawling bar inDitmas Park, is a self-contained pub crawl, offeringthe restless patron four sections to chose from. Onedamp Thursday, two adventurers started their eve-ning in the large back yard, where rough benchesthreaten soft places with cruel splinters. A youngwoman flipped through old Trivial Pursuit cardswhile a man in a denim jacket with faux-shearlingtrim read “The Brie Wondrous Life o Oscar Wao.”In an adjacent Bedouin-style tent, decorated in animprobable hunting-lodge theme (fake fireplace,taxidermy pheasant), Queen Cobra Thai StreetFood served up sweet chicken wings covered incilantro. Mounds o discarded metacarpals suckedclean grew on mismatched picnic tables, as a moody,

crooning rendition o the “Bingo” song signalledthe start o queer singles bingo. (The food venders,and events, change nightly.) The evening’s host,Ariel Speedwagon, warned players not to stop toosoon—“That’s what she said!” rang out in response.The crawlers, finishing a hot whiskey cider thattasted like the dregs o an overly honeyed tea,passed through a teensy smokers’ patio and intothe booze-soaked main bar, attracted by a glowingyellow counter, its surface like the cracked crust oa crème brûlée. Nearly a hundred varieties o whis-key line narrow shelves stretching across one wall,yet not enough o it found its way into a wateryManhattan. In the final zone, a flower-shop store-front, a wandering Jew intertwined its iridescentsilver and purple-green vines with the hand-shaped

leaves o a prayer plant. Fatigued after their long journey, the two travellers rested with Sazeracs ina forest o ferns, bright-green tentacles strokingtheir hair. —McKenna Stayner

1

BAR TAB

P H O T O G R A

P H B Y J E R E M Y L I E B M A N F O R T H E N E W Y

O R K E R ; I L L U S T R A T I O N B Y J O O S T S W A R T E


20/84



COMMENT

MONEY TROUBLE

“B’ . You know that, don’t you?” Donald Trump asked at a rally in Indianapolis last Wednes-day, the day after he had won New York’s Republican Pres-idential primary, and, on the Democratic side, Hillary Clin-ton had beaten Bernie Sanders. “I love running againstCrooked Hillary, I love that. I mean, it’s so much fun,” hesaid, adding, “Bernie wouldn’t be as much fun.” (Trumphad introduced “Crooked Hillary” a few days earlier, andhe appears to be sticking with the name, despite all the talkabout how his campaign is pivoting toward professional-ism.) By Thursday, he seemed to have reconsidered San-ders’s fun factor. “In fact, I’d like him to keep going,” Trump

said at a rally in Harrisburg. “Because the longer he goes,the more I’m going to like it.” He was referring to San-ders’s attacks on Clinton. “Bernie Sanders—not me!—saidshe’s not qualified,” he noted.

Trump’s remarks summed up the fears that many Clin-ton supporters have about whether Sanders’s candidacy isin danger of, as Robby Mook, Clinton’s campaign managerput it, “poisoning the well.” After the New York primary,Sanders told Andrea Mitchell, on NBC, that he might takethe fight to the Convention floor inPhiladelphia, in July, even if, as is likely,Clinton ends up with more pledged

delegates than he does after the finalprimaries, in June. In particular, theClinton camp wishes that Sanders

would stop talking about matters re-lated to Clinton and money—her do-nors, the super s that support her,and the speaking fees that she hasearned—in ways that it considers“negative and personal.”

Last Thursday, at a rally in Read-ing, Pennsylvania, Sanders spokeabout how he relies on small donors,rather than on “the billionaire class.”“Secretary Clinton has chosen to raiseher money a different way,” he said,

pausing to let the crowd boo. He next turned to the paidspeeches that Clinton gave in the two years between her de-parture from the State Department and the announcementof her candidacy, for which she earned a total of twenty-fivemillion dollars. Goldman Sachs paid her two hundred andtwenty-five thousand dollars for one speech. It must havebeen a “world-shattering speech,” Sanders said. “It was prob-ably written in Shakespearean prose.” This is a set piece atSanders rallies, and it lands better at some times than at oth-ers; he has a good sense of satire, but not always a good earfor when satire turns to contempt. Clinton has refused torelease the transcripts of her paid speeches unless all the

Presidential candidates do. Sanders has given no such speeches,and he mimed throwing their nonexistent transcripts to theReading crowd, calling, “Are you ready? Here they are!”

All this has led some Democrats to wonder if Sandershas put agitating for revolution ahead of the Party’s elec-toral interests. When the Sanders campaign complainedabout the activities of the Hillary Victory Fund, a jointfund-raising committee of her campaign, the DemocraticNational Committee, and state Democratic Parties, which

has raised sixty million dollars, Mookreleased a statement saying, “Insteadof trying to convince the next gener-

ation of progressives that the Demo-cratic Party is corrupt, Senator San-ders should stick to the issues andthink about what he can do to helpthe Party he is seeking to lead.”

The quandary—for Sanders and forthe Party—is that the corruption of thepolitical system is his issue. Last week,he was asked on the “Today” show about

T

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