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Tita (Ines Dominguez del Corral) looks on longingly as her sister, the bride (Guadalupe Campos) dances with Pedro (Peter Pereyra) in Gala Hispanic Theatre's Like Water for Chocolate/photo by Daniel Martinez
Take a family with three daughters, add
some weddings, several births and deaths, mix in laughter and sorrow,
ghosts, a tang of gunfire, roosters, barking dogs, dancing, love, sex,
lots of sex, and what do you have?
Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate) on stage now at Gala Hispanic Theatre, a delight of a show whose joys overcomes the heartaches, and it's the U.S. premiere.
The place and timing are in Mexico, about 100 years ago where two revolutions were underway, the national civil war, and one at a home of entrenched traditions where daughters did, more or less, what their mamas told them to do.
Every ingredient you want in a play is here and more to savor! Magnifico!
Director Olga Sánchez conducts a talented crew but none more able than Luz Nicolas, Mama Elena in the play, the hated, cruel, and vindictive wicked witch of this stage with hair severely pulled back to augment her sharp features. (Costumer Moyenda Kulemeka's simple and refined apparel keeps the mom in black, and the other actors in colorful garb, none which detracts from the script.)
Tita (Inez Dominguez del Corral) is Mama Elena's youngest daughter, imprisoned for life and sentenced to caring for her mother who ages in the finest of traditions.
He brought her flowers, starring Ines Dominguez del Corral as Tita in Gala Hispanic Theatre's Like Water for Chocolate/photo by Daniel Martinez
The man who waits for no one, Pedro (Peter Pereyra), and enjoys soon enough the "services" of two women, Tita and her older sister, Rosaura (Guadalupe Campos), marries Rosaura, so he can be "closer" to Tita whom Evil Mother has banned from love and happiness.
Crazy? Yes, like most families.
Meanwhile, the other sister, an energetic Gertrudis (Yaremis Felix) consumes a Tita magic potion dish (does the script come with recipes?) and "ignites," running off with a guerrilla warrior and his pals who eventually barnstorm the home with guns and hot takes.
The passion, which the now-always-beaming Gertrudis shares with her newly-found love, comes straight from the oven, enough to heat up the stage and the audience, too. (If this were in January, no heating elements would be necessary for anyone in the house. The "fight and intimacy director," Jonathan Ezra Rubin, adds a heaping side of relish to saucy and scalding scenes.)
Preparing consistently perfect chile en nogada is practically impossible, and this Chocolate has its weaknesses, particularly in the second act when the first act's successful time passage technique become tiresome.
Music (and sound) by David Crandall spice up Chocolate's menu with perfect timing for explosives, lights, and action.
Demands for frequent and varied lighting changes are amply satisfied under Christopher Annas-Lee's excellent guidance to add zest to the many scenes (ably designed by Mariana Fernandez). The centerpiece on the stage is the kitchen table which serves multiple purposes (including births). (Properties by Tony Koehler)
Windows with moving curtains double as frames for regularly-appearing ghosts with messages and enforce the notion of "magical realism." That's the genre here which is a contradictory term itself, but that defines this domicile of peachy walls and warmth, conflict, and fire.
Spoken in Spanish with English subtitles, but Chocolate's strong story soon eclipses reading subtitles which becomes unnecessary.
The play is based on the 1989 bestselling first novel by Laura Esquivel and adapted for the stage by Garbi Losada.
Adding more seasoning to the presentation are images in Gala's lobby of the Mexican Revolution from the collection of Dr. Barbara Tenebaum and James Kiernan.
Coming up September 23 after the 2 p.m. performance is a discussion with cookbook author, Chef Pati Jinich, the James Beard Award winner and host of the PBS Pati's Mexican Table series who is also the resident chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute.
Other members of the Chocolate cast are Carlos Castillo as Don Pascual; Delbis Cardona, Dr. John Brown; Karen Romero, narrator; and crowd favorites Teresa Yenque who is Nacha, and Karen Morales, Chencha.
The technical crew also includes Niomi Collard, projections; Catherine Nunez, stage manager; Devin Mahoney, technical director; and Heather McKay, English translator.
What: Como Agua Para Chocolate (Like Water for Chocolate)
When: Now through October 7, 2018, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.
Where: Gala Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20010.
Tickets: $48 and $30 for seniors (65+), military, students, and those ages 30 and under, with additional discounts for groups of 10 and more. Go online to order: GALA Ticket Box
(To read subtitles comfortably, English-only guests should request seating in rows E through H.)
Duration: About 2. 5 hours with one 10 minute intermission.
Language and ages: Rated "G." Content is adult.
Metro stations: Columbia Heights or McPherson Square and take a bus or the Circulator from McPherson up 14th or walk two miles.
Parking: Available nearby. Ask about Gala's $4 flat rate.
For more information: Call (202) 234-7174 and/or email info@galatheatre.org
patricialesli@gmail.com
From John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection/Oscilloscope Laboratories
Dear Tennis Fans,
That this movie earned a 100% audience rating and 88% critics rating at Rotten Tomatoes is shocking, but given the now-that-I-think-of-it expected audience, maybe not so surprising.
But, hey! I was a member of the so-called expected audience and for me, John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection is an error, a dud. It is awful.
Half of the film is devoted to McEnroe's temper tantrums, although none of his in this film, quite matches that of Serena Williams last weekend at the U.S. Open.
The French documentary is not about his life, his upbringing, training, or great matches. It's not about his motivators or methodology which we, the underperforming (or non-performing) can hope to adapt in some manner or another.
It's not an update on what he's doing in life now besides working as a sports commentator. What's it all about, Johnny?
It's a single year of his tennis life, 1984, when he played and lost (to Ivan Lendl) at Roland Garros Stadium at the French Open. (McEnroe still gets ill when he has to go to France.)
Despite the loss, this movie star still holds the single year season record, a 96.5% win rate.
The movie has clips from a few great matches with...whom? Save for the last match, competitors are hidden from view.
I was yearning to see Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, some of the greats McEnroe battled. Instead, I saw lots of McEnroe's shoes, his grimaces, his frowns, his unhappiness, and his towels.
Oh, and there's the red clay. (All, about the same shade.) Lots of it to be seen when he points to the lines and argues with officials, never successfully, about what he thinks are errant calls.
Also, there is a surfeit of narration and computer drawings about his
serve, his arm positions, his style, his bent knees, in slow motion. A
technical film, for tennis coaches and their students, and that's about all.
In the words of every sub-teen: b - o - r - i - n - g.
I think I was hoping to see the film, Borg v. McEnroe I've heard about. Perfection? This ain't it!
I saw it so you don't have to.
Julien Faraut wrote and directed; Mathieu Amalric, narrated.
patricialesli@gmail.com
Ahem.
After reading The Race To Save The Romanovs: The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family, I submit a better title is: The Race To Flee The Romanovs since ...
Nobody wanted 'em!
Not the Spanish, or the Danes, the Finns, the Swedes, the French, or the Germans. (Perish the thought! The Germans? The book quotes Nicholas and Alexandra that they would rather be dead than be rescued by Germans, and so they were.)
The English? My dear chap, certainly not the English, heaven forbid, for although Cousin George V was Nicky's first cousin and lookalike twin (their mothers were sisters), how dare the English to even consider, consider (!), harboring the Russian royal family and giving the English underclasses the very idea of revolution, like the Russians!
Please, spare us all, which the English did not.
What does family have to do with it anyway at a time like this, when your arse might be shot by subjects tempted to follow revolutionaries who might (dare to even ponder the possibility(!)) overtake the English throne?
The very thought of it! Which, the English tried not to think of it.
No way was the King of England going to help his family in distress, his wife, Queen Mary, whispering sweet reinforcements in his ear: nyet! (Naturally, Queen Mary arguably could be called a force behind George's failure to rescue, but that the respected Race author, Helen Rappaport, the writer of many Romanov books, would stoop to insert a rumored conversation between Gore Vidal and Princess Margaret, yes, that Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, about the weaknesses of her grandmother leaves one to ask: Prithee, why denigrate your work with this trifle?)
In her book, Ms.Rappaport quotes letters, diaries, published materials, new documents she and her researchers uncovered, and government archives where she could gain access, some archives still under wraps after all these 100 years. ("It's none of the public's business," the royal keepers sniff.)
The Bolsheviks shot, bayoneted, and burned the family on July 17, 1918, and announced Nicholas's death only, which the British press barely bothered to report. The English Royal Family desired to keep all matters Romanov quiet (surprise!) to avoid stirring up their own messes, excuse, masses and besides, the rest of the family, Alexandra and the five children were sequestered somewhere else, safe and sound in Siberia.
Weren't they?
No one cared too much about the imprisoned family anyway after they and close staff members were hauled east towards Siberia from St. Petersburg the year before they were murdered (the map in the book, quite confusing).
Before all the family deaths were revealed (much to the consternation of the world, but let's not talk about it), the Bolsheviks used them as negotiating tools to try and gain release of prisoners, Ms. Rappaport writes.
Alexandra, formerly of Germany, wife, mother and seemingly despised by all Russians and Brits (she did favor Rasputin, lest anyone need the reminder) suggests another unpopular wife of a national leader, Mary Todd Lincoln, both women whom some blame for their husbands' demise and deaths. (To this duo, please add Queen Mary. Is anyone working on a book about the trio? I would like to read it.)
Ms. Rappaport's Race has a fine glossary of characters at the front which helps keep identifications straight, but not every name is included. (If you are going to list some, then why not list them all?)
I am thinking about the omission of Dmitri Malinovsky (pages 222-223), Nicholay Sokolov (pages 134 and 135), not to be confused with Viktor Sokolov (on the same page as Nicholay [page 223] and more), cousins and Princes Vladimir and Alexander Trubetskoy, pages 134, 136-137, and Konstantin Nabokov (the Russian ambassador to the United Kingdom whose name is found on page 248 and four other pages, whose surname is the same as Vladimir's of Lolita fame and are they related, I wondered? Yes, his uncle, I discovered in a web search).
There were more names not identified in the glossary, but my paper ran short, and I grew weary of listing and looking them all up.
And then there was the tiny (in small print) Romanov family tree and all their European royalty relations spread over two pages, necessitating a magnifying glass, and surely, there is a better way to display the lineage in larger print for all those beyond the age of 55 who might read this book and take a gander at the family tree!
(RE: The map of the Romanovs' prison route. Where was England? We know where England is, but its relationship to Finland and Russia would have helped here.)
Was this a race to get the book out in the centennial year of the Romanovs' murders?
Rumor of an escape route to Japan and then, the US, is mentioned (?).
patricialesli@gmail.com
Georg Baselitz, Zero End, 2013, Private Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie
The first major U.S. exhibition in more than 20 years of a living German artist ends next month at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum
More than 100 paintings, paper works, and sculptures by Georg Baselitz are on view, some for the first time in this country.
Georg Baselitz, Oberon (1st Orthodox, Salon 64--E.Neizvestny), 1964, Stadel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
In celebration of his 80th birthday, the Hirshhorn, which hosted Baselitz in 1996, presents six decades of his works, "one of the most original and inventive figurative artists of his generation," the Hirshhorn says.
I'll say. What an understatement.
What stands in memory are the sordid, artificial mammals Baselitz makes. He wants to share his misery with you.
This is a horror show on walls. This is not a family fun house at the Hirshhorn. Take your children and Gramps at your own risk. I do not recommend it as a venue for a first date. I do not recommend it as a venue for the second date, and if you get to the third date and want to end it all, why this would be a good place! Pretend like you love the stuff and watch him/her flee!
Georg Baselitz, Win D., 1959, Private Collection
"I proceed from a state of disharmony, from ugly things," Baselitz is quoted, but, judging on the presentation, he is stuck on "ugly things" with broad, heavy brush strokes, bold colors, and "in your face" depictions of somber human creatures, many, ready for suicide.
The display will not leave you in a romantic state of mind. It will not inspire or lift. It will leave you plummeting into Baselitz' pit of self-torture.
American abstract expressionists influenced Baselitz who has come to exercise his own command of contemporary American artists, the Hirshhorn says. He is frequently called a neo-expressionist which the Tate defines as " a reaction to the minimalism and conceptual art that had dominated the 1970s." In Italy, neo-expressionists are deemed part of "Transavanguardia" or "beyond the avant-garde." Ahem.
Georg Baselitz, Fifties Portrait - M. W., 1969, Private Collection
Baselitz attended art school in Communist East Berlin and studied the "officially sanctioned form of social realism" until
he was expelled in 1957 for “sociopolitical immaturity.” He continued his studies in West Berlin and helped revive German Expressionism, a form the Nazis denounced.
Dramatically affected by post-World War II Germany, Baselitz sees
everything with a jaundiced, negative eye and seeks to upend order.
His works are testimony to that mantra. He was born in Deutschbaselitz, the name he adopted as his own in 1958 or 1961 (different years cited around the Web). His birth name was Hans-Georg Kern.
Several of his landmark "upside down" paintings, which earned him international
recognition starting in 1969, are at the Hirshhorn.
Once he turned his first figures upside-down, Wikipedia says, Baselitz kept turning.
An object painted upside down is suitable for painting because it is unsuitable as an object, Baselitz is quoted in 1981. Some of Baselitz' works are unsuitable because they are unsuitable.
Georg Baselitz, Finger Painting - Apple Trees, 1973, Collection of Udo and Anette Brandhorst
He frequently paints with his wife, Elze, to whom he has been married 56 years.
Georg Baselitz, Model for a Sculpture, 1979-80, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ludwig Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie
He was chosen to represent Germany in the prestigious Venice Biennale in 1980 where he took his first sculpture, "Model for a Sculpture," which was controversial because of its similarity to the Nazi salute.
Georg Baselitz, Model for a Sculpture, 1979-80, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ludwig Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Georg Baselitz, Model for a Sculpture, 1979-80, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ludwig Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Georg Baselitz, Model for a Sculpture, 1979-80, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Ludwig Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Baselitz has a reputation for thinking poorly of women artists, an opinion he reiterated in 2015 in an interview with Kate Connolly of the Guardian and earlier, in 2013 when he told Der
Spiegel: "Women don't paint very well. It's a fact. There are, of
course, exceptions....Women simply don't pass the test. (...) The market
test, the value test."
Artnet News investigated.
Georg Baselitz, On the Right and Left a Church, 1987, Peress Family Collection
Until 2014 the most paid for a "'Mr. Upside Down'" was $7.45 million for his 1983 Der Brückechor (The Brücke Chorus).
This
price fell short of the $44.4 million paid in 2014 for Georgia
O'Keefe's 1932 Jimseed Weed/White Flower No. 1 or Joan Mitchell's
Untitled which brought $11.925 million in the same year, or the $10.7
million paid in 2011 for Spider created in 1996 by Louise Bourgeois. (It may be
the same Spider by Ms. Bourgeois, 1996, across the Mall from the Hirshhorn at National Gallery of Art's Sculpture
Garden! See it here.)
And there are more women artists who outrank Baselitz in terms of money.
Artnet News and writer Brian Boucher combed auction records to find out just how high Baselitz ranked in 2015 monetary terms: 932.
Perhaps the next time he comes to town, the artist will visit the National Museum of Women in the Arts and check out the art and the value of its holdings. Baselitz could stand a little "pick me up."
Georg Baselitz, My New Hat, 2003, Pinault Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Georg Baselitz, My New Hat, 2003, Pinault Collection/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Georg Baselitz, Mrs. Ultramarine, 2004, Dasmaximum Kunst Gegenwart, Traunreut/Photo by Patricia Leslie
Georg Baselitz, The Naked Man, 1962 Private Collection Based on "lewd and obscene content," German authorities seized several Baselitz works in 1963 including the one above, one of his most controversial which conveyed the artist's "discontent with German socialist policies." This fellow (in a coffin?) greets visitors on the right wall at the exhibition entrance at the Hirshhorn.
Baselitz opened in Basel, Switzerland in January before coming to Washington.
Tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. the Hirshhorn's chief curator, Stéphane Aquin who has an essay in the catalogue, will lead an hour-long tour of Baselitz at the museum. Meet in the lobby.
Below is the cover of the big (200+ pages) catalog for Baselitz with an interview with the artist, essays, photos of him working, full page color reproductions of his works, and a timeline of his life. Like the show, the book is arranged chronologically.
The exhibition is co-sponsored by Fondation Beyeler, whose director, Sam Keller, and the Hirshhorn director, Melissa Chiu write in the foreword to the catalogue that Baselitz exhibitions in the U.S. and Switzerland "are a rarity." Quelle surprise!
The cover of the catalogue found at Amazon, $52.36 (hardcover) or $35 (paper) plus shipping. I could not find the catalogue online at the Hirshhorn or at Smithsonian shops.
What: Baselitz: Six Decades
When: Now through September 16, 2018, from 10 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. Open every day
Where: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on the National Mall at Independence Avenue and Seventh Street, S.W.
How much: No charge
Metro stations: Smithsonian or L'Enfant Plaza (Maryland Avenue exit)
For more information: 202-633-1000
patricialesli@gmail.com
He brought her flowers, starring Ines Dominguez del Corral as Tita in Gala Hispanic Theatre's Like Water for Chocolate/photo by Daniel Martinez
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