LECTURES & PERFORMANCES

I have previously spoken of the many reduced-price or free cultural activities going on in New York, and tonight we attended another. The many branches of Barnes & Nobel and of Borders have 'special event' spaces in their stores where lectures by authors and performances by musicians are held for free. One or both of us have attended a performance and talk by The Blind Boys of Alabama, various folk singers, and the cast, director, and songwriter of the off-Broadway musical 'Gone Missing.' We have also heard lectures by Jimmy Breslin and by James McBride.

Tonight's talk was by the cast of the Harold Pinter play 'The Homecoming,' who also stayed to sign merchandise relevant to their careers. Ian McShane has over a hundred roles to his credit on IMDB, including one for the British TV series 'Lovejoy' and one for the HBO series 'Deadwood,' in which he portrayed the bar owner Al Swearengen, when I first saw his work. If you can get by the four letter words in Deadwood (and the 12 letter word...think about it) it is on the same level of quality as 'The Sopranos.' Michael McKean has an even longer Filmography on the IMDB--almost 175 credits! I first saw him in television, on 'Laverne and Shirley,' where he appeared in 144 episodes, but he has also been on 27 episodes of 'Saturday Night Live,' 26 episodes of 'Dream On,' 12 episodes of 'Dinosaurs,' 27 of '101 Dalmatians,' 30 of 'Primetime Glick'--even 4 episodes of 'The X Files!' Of course, he will primarily be David St. Hubbins from 'This is Spinal Tap' or all of those other film collaborations with Christopher Guest (Waiting for Gufman, A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, For Your Consideration). Finally, Raul Esparza, a Miamian and two-time Tony nominee, has been seen in 'Company' on Broadway and in 'Pushing Daisies' on television.

In retrospect, I wish I had made a tape recording of this session as it was every bit as good as I had hoped it would be, and I will definitely see 'The Homecoming' in the next week or two. Questions were posed by a moderator and by audience members--memorable responses included a skewering of critics (this play was very well reviewed by the NY Times, but McShane never reads reviews and quoted Woody Allen's likeness of critics as 'those who can't teach, teach gym'). When asked about the upcoming election and the possibility of a woman or African-American being elected he pointed out that Margaret Thatcher was Britain's PM decades ago and that Blacks have held high office throughout the world--it is only in the USA that having a woman or minority as President is considered 'groundbreaking.' Performing a Pinter play, and how they all admired the work and found it humorous and not at all obscure or absurdist, was also discussed, as was their admiration for the cast--which was likened by Mr. Esparza as "A school of fish; one actor makes a small creative departure during that particular performance and everyone else follows right with them immediately." They all said they concentrated more during this run than is usually the case and didn't notice the audience that much, focused as they were on each other. Finally, they said that the play was at its funniest on the Tuesday show, after they'd all had a day off, but that as the week progressed and they sunk deeper into their roles it became a darker play on each succeeding evening and that no two performances had the same feel.

Another memorable and thought-provoking evening--and that's just talking ABOUT the play: can't wait to actually SEE it!

Dan

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