When Justice Isn't Served

Note from Jenna: I just returned from a two-week trip to Ireland and England. This is my review of a production my colleagues and I saw in Dublin.


Dublin -- Attending a Shakespeare play, or any play for that matter, is always a gamble: will it dazzle and invigorate, or will it rock you to sleep.
The Abbey Theatre Company’s production of “Julius Caesar,” which I saw on March 13, fell somewhere in between: it wasn’t bad, yet it wasn’t exceptionally good. The set was interesting enough; the brief interludes of intense, throbbing music were effective. Most of the 34-member cast delivered decent performances, and a few really shined. But you just didn’t leave the show thinking, “Wow. That was outstanding.”
If your high school memories of studying this Shakespearean tragedy are a bit fuzzy, the basic story is this: It’s 44 B.C. in Rome. The beloved Caesar is stabbed to death by traitors. The traitors intend to win the affection of the people, but Caesar’s loyalists, led by Marc Antony, retaliate.
A battle ensues. The traitors fumble. The loyalists triumph.
The show, which ran through March 17, was directed by Jason Byrne. The 35-year-old directed the same play ten years ago with his company Loose Cannon. Given Byrne’s fairly young age, one might have expected a contemporary interpretation or a few modern twists. Such was not the case. Byrne took a fairly traditional approach, delivering a play that felt stark and pure. There were no ornate costumes or elaborate sets; the focus was squarely on the dialogue.
In the first three acts, which came before intermission, we watched as Caesar’s traitors, led by Cassius and Brutus, schemed their murder of the king and ultimately stabbed him to death on the Ides of March.
The set was quite barren: an empty space surrounded by gray walls and punctuated with moody lighting. The costumes were equally ascetic: the men were wrapped in khaki and gray sheets; the only bolts of color we saw were a green dress worn by Caesar’s wife, and a purple gown worn by Porsia, the wife of Brutus.
In the play’s second half – acts four and five – we found the characters on a sparsely lit battlefield, wearing gladiator uniforms. This part of the show was laden with distracting quirks. In one scene, Cassius and Brutus stood under what looked like a mess tent that might be featured in an episode of MASH. To add to it, classical music played from a gramophone sitting on a table.
Acts four and five certainly had more action – men shouted, men dueled, men committed suicide. But the story was much weaker here, and the play fizzled to an end. This was more a product of Shakespeare’s writing than the acting and directing.
But still, Byrne could have done better. Certainly producing a 400-year-old play is no easy task. But considering the Abbey is Ireland’s premiere theater, it should have been capable of doing better justice to the world’s premiere playwright. (JM)

Who's the Copy Cat?

Syracuse – No, this is not a relative of Hello Kitty.
This is Miffy, a picture book character invented in 1955 by Dick Bruna, a Dutch artist. Many think she’s Japanese, but Miffy was around long before that peculiar kitty (introduced in the ’70s).
Bruna, apparently inspired by his own imagination, thought up Miffy after telling his one-year-old son a story about a white rabbit.
She’s been quite a hit over the past five decades. The Miffy children’s books – which sometimes address tough subjects like death but always end on a happy note – are translated into 40 languages. They have names like “Miffy at the Zoo” and “Miffy in the Snow.” Miffy also has a TV show, “Miffy and Friends.” Her gang of buddies include Aggie, Boris Bear, Poppy Pig, Grunty and her dog Snuffy.
Isn’t this little bunny adorable? -- JM

Happy Happy

Syracuse – Today is my flatmate’s birthday. Eat cake and be merry, Suzanne!
Last night, we had a little soiree at our house and then headed to Armory Square, the bar/cultural district in downtown Syracuse.

Here’s a photo of the gang at the piano bar, Daniel Jack’s (a very cool, narrow space with beat-up brick walls and a balcony that overlooks the basement-level dining area).

There was no piano player last night, but there was a very hammered patron who kept shouting and falling off his seat. He wasn't part of our crew. -- JM.

Support Your Local Filmmaker

Syracuse -- The Redhouse, a renovated three-story brick building in downtown, is one of this city's cultural jewels. Since opening in 2004, it has presented musicians, plays, visual artists and films from around the world. But for the next two weeks, the focus is on talent cultivated right here in central New York.
The Redhouse’s Local Filmmakers Showcase starts today and runs through March 18. The event features three documentaries and one feature film, all created by filmmakers with roots in this region.
Each film will be presented twice during the showcase; tickets are $6 per show. I produced a podcast about the event, which you can listen to at http://pulse.syr.edu/podcast/
Here are brief summaries about each film (I haven't seen any of them):
* In “Prisoners of Freedom,” we learn the little known story of Fort Ontario, a camp in Oswego where nearly 1,000 European refugees were housed during WWII. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and was both a sanctuary and a prison for the people who stayed there. The 90-minute documentary features old photos, reenactments and interviews with surviving residents. The film was written by two Syracuse University professors, Tom Friedman and Owen Shapiro. Shapiro also directed the film.
* “North of 49” examines the burning of a temple in rural Oswego County two months after Sept. 11. The temple was a converted farmhouse that belonged to members of the Sikh faith, a religion founded in the Punjab region of India. The temple was set aflame by four teenagers who thought the Sikhs supported Osama Bin Laden. The 55-minute film was directed by Richard Breyer, an SU professor, and co-written by Breyer and David Coryell.
* In “Pledge of Allegiance Blues,” we meet Michael Newdow, a California doctor and atheist who brought the “under God” lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court. Newdow believed his daughter shouldn’t be forced to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school. The issue was complicated by the fact that Newdow didn’t have legal custody of his daughter. The 70-minute documentary, which features the publisher Larry Flynt, was directed by Lisa Seidenberg, a Syracuse native.
* In the fictional film “Hearts Unarmored,” a young man and woman meet a small train station, where time seems to have stopped. The woman is deeply troubled by her marriage to a soldier who has just returned from war, while the young man carries his own dark secrets. The film was directed by Radu Olievschi, a native of Romania and Utica College graduate.
For more information, visit www.theredhouse.org. – JM