What a Queer Thing to Say - Playwright Tony Kushner

98 minutes with American Playwright Tony Kushner

(Vancouver, BC) The 19th annual Vancouver Queer Film & Video Festival opened last Thursday with The Bubble, a party at Celebrities, and a few rumoured makeout sessions.

However, besides all that and never-you-mind, last night I attended the screening of Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, the 2006 documentary by Freida Lee Mock. The documentary follows Kushner as he revisits his past in Lake Charles, Louisiana, works on creating contemporary theatre pieces (the musical Caroline, Homebody/Kabul - a piece about the Taliban and Afghanistan, written prior to September 11 but opened December 2001, and Brundibar), and as he fights and advocates for civil society, economic justice and compassion in our relationships with each other (during the 2004 presidential election he works at a polling station in Florida, he speaks at rallys, he writes theatre).

Kushner explores his relationship with his father and mother and being gay (like the character in Angels in America, Tony calls his mother from a payphone and announced to her that he was gay - she cried for six months), we see how bits and pieces of his past are woven into elements of his plays and work; we see just how important his family is to him and how stable are his relationships.

The blurb in the VQF&V guide says, "throughout [Wrestling with Angels], we observe Kushner fighting for humanism, rationaility, and compassion. Informative, thought-provoking, Kushner is one of America's leading intellectuals and a brave outspoken gay man with a vision - this is a must-see."

A couple of memorable lines from the film: (Kushner is adorably funny throughout but especially during his commencement speech to Vassar grads). Click here to read it in full. But I especially loved these lines:

Thank you for inviting me, but I worry about you. Haven't you been reading the papers? ...why couldn't you have gone for something a bit more techno-savvy, someone from the movies, Spiderman for instance, why someone from the theater for God's sake, do you want everyone to think you're gay?

And when Larry Kramer, sitting on a panel with Kushner, says to a young man in the audience: "You're the invisible generation. You don't stand for anything, you don't fight for anything that I can see." It's a great line but it can actually be said of any of the last five generations in North America.

Look for Wrestling with Angels when it comes out in the video store or when it plays on CBC's The Passionate Eye (as it inevitably will).

The Vancouver Queer Film & Video Festival continues all week until this Sunday. There's still lots to see.

xoxo

MVL

You Know You're Not Alone - Michael Franti at Malkin Bowl

When the rains came people danced harder, jumped higher

Michael Franti and Spearhead played the Malkin Bowl in Stanley Park last night despite the rain. Hitting the stage at eight o'oclock on a warm August evening Spearhead lost no time in getting the crowd jumping and lifting their arms to the heavens.

And for the next two hours the energy never stopped from the stage or the crowd. Franti's music invites people to sing along, to clap, or to twist and turn like an ecstatic hippy.

At about nine o'olcok the clouds had thickened and it started to mist. The rain was so light I could only feel an occaisional drop on my bare foot but I could see the rain reflecting the multi-coloured stage lights. As the rain increased in strength and then began to pour Franti and Spearhead, undaunted, stepped forward on the stage away from the roof of Malkin Bowl and into the rain.

But as we all know, a little bit of water only destroys wicked witches of the West - Vancouverites are pretty much used to it. Everybody embraced it. Franti - Rain or Shine.

In two hours Franti and Spearhead covered most of the Yell Fire album, some of Everbody Deserves Music - they also covered some Marley and did a rocked up version of the Theme from Sesame Street - with two thousand vocal accompanists.

I was soaked through and delighted at the end of it.

Thanks Michael and Spearhead. Thanks Rick for the ticket. Hey to Linda, Laura and Andrew. Ian, call me.

Everybody deserves music, sweet music. Even the quiet ones in our family, they deserve music.

xoxo

MVL

Turiddu, you faithless, two-timing bastard! Marry me, already!

Turiddu to Alfio, "bite me!"

November 10, 13, 15, 17, 2007 Queen Elizabeth Theatre

The Vancouver Opera Society presents Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni (along with I Pagliacci by Leoncavallo) in the opening performances of its 2007/2008 season.

The story:

In Sicily, Turiddu, recently returned from the army, moves in with his mother (hey, he's Italian). He discovers that his fiancee, Lola, has, in his absence, married Alfio, who makes a living doing inter-village cartage. Turiddu is disappointed but turns his virile attentions to another local girl, Santuzzo.

But Turiddu tires of her and soon starts a flirtation with his ex-flame, Lola, during one of her husband's frequent absences. He abandons Santuzzo and she is emotionally devastated and ruined (the Church has excommunicated her for being a fallen woman).

During the Easter festivities while the villagers wend their way to the church Santuzzo pleads with Lola to leave her Turiddu alone. But Lola won't have any of it and pulls away to enter church. Santuzzo reminds Lola that only those who are without sin can go to church. Lola gives praise to God that she is without sin and bounds up the steps and into church.

Santuzzo fights with Turiddu, who doesn't want his little thing with Lola ruined. They scream at each other. Santuzzo vows revenge. If she can't have him, she'll see him dead.

Santuzzo tells Alfio that he's being cuckolded by Turiddu. After the services Alfio, outraged, bites Turiddu on the ear, a Sicilian mortal challenge. He goes behind the garden to wait for Turiddu.

Turiddu asks his mother to care for Santuzzo, if doesn't return. He leaves to confront Alfio in a mortal knife fight.

A villager soon returns announcing that Turiddu has been knifed to death. Every one is sad, sad, sad. He was such a keeper, wasn't he, Mamma Lucia?

Cavelleria Rusticana (The Rustic Chivalry) was composed by Pietro Mascagni in 1889 who submitted the score to Sonzogno, a music publisher, as part of a competition he sponsored for one act operas. Mascagni's score won first prize and was soon performed to great acclaim and popularity. Its hyper-realism captured the imagination of the public and approval from the critics, who dubbed the style verismo.

According the liner notes to a copy of I Pagliacci I own, both Leoncavallo and Mascagni submitted scores to Sonzogno but Mascagni won because of both the quality of his score and on a technicality - Leoncavallo's score was actaully in two acts. But Sonzogno wisely snapped up both pieces and they have been performed together pretty much ever since and are popularily known as "Cav-Pag."

Click here for parking information

Click here for tickets.

Click here for the Vancouver Opera Society’s 2007/2008 season.

Are you afraid of clowns?

Vancouver Opera announces its 2007/2008 season

November 10, 13, 15, 17, 2007 Queen Elizabeth Theatre

"Crazy Joe" Davolo: Are you afraid of clowns?
Cosmo Kramer: (nervously) A little.

I Pagliacci by Leoncavallo
First produced May 21, 1892

The Vancouver Opera Society has unveiled its 2007/2008 season.

I Pagliacci is up first. It will be familiar to Seinfeld fans from episode 49 of that sitcom, The Opera.

It's a tragic story of possessive love. A troupe of strolling players arrive in Calabria at the time of the Feast of the Virgin di Mezzagosto. Canio, the chief of the troupe, invites all to come to the performance later that evening and then goes off to drink with the locals and members of his troupe.

Tonio, the clown, remains behind to care for the donkey. Underneath his striped clown costume is a deformed body. He proclaims his love for Nedda, the Columbine of the troupe, and who is also, of course, Canio’s wife. He tries to force a kiss from her and she rebukes him.

Tonio sulks off and vows revenge.

Nedda meets with Silvio, a handsome and wealthy villager, and he convinces her to leave this life she loathes and come away with him. She agrees – "Look in mine eyes, and kiss away my sorrow."

Tonio brings Canio, Nedda’s husband, to the tryst and they arrive just in time to hear Nedda’s parting words to Silvio, "Tonight love, and forever I am thine."

Silvio slips away into the night. Canio demands to know her lover’s name but she vows to seal her lips forever.

In the second act, the villagers arrive to enjoy the performance. The players present a stock-piece domestic comedy that mirrors all that has gone on between them in the first act. Tonio plays the idiot servant and he declares his love for Columbine (Nedda) but is rebuffed with scorn. The Harlequin (Bebbe) declares his love for Columbine but is nearly surprised by the arrival Puchinello (Canio), who arrives just as Columbine is helping her lover escape. He hears her repeat the same words Nedda used with her real-life lover earlier that evening.

Canio loses his head and forgets his part. He demands furiously the name of her lover. Nedda tries to restore the play. The audience, unaware of the real situation, are amused and in good spirits. They fail to grasp the seriousness. Tonio, sour with desire for revenge, keeps Bebbe (the Harlequin) from interceding before the the situation becomes lethal.

Canio, enraged at being denied the name, grasps a knife from the table and stabs Nedda in the heart and sings, "di morte negli spasimi Lo dirai!" (you will tell it with your dying breath).

And she does. She calls out in anguish to Silvio, who leaps from the audience to the stage, and dies in his arms.

Canio stabs Silvio to death and says, "So! Tis you, then? Tis well!" He turns to the audience, "The Comedy is ended."

There it is. Fucking clowns. You are wise to steer clear of them.

I Pagliacci is performed along with Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascagni

Click here for parking information

Click here for tickets.

Click here for the Vancouver Opera Society’s 2007/2008 season.