All posts by Neil Morris
Neil Morris ·
16 May 2009, 10:24 PM ·
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THEATRE IN THE PARK / RALEIGH—The 1930s quasi-gangland setting for Theatre In The Park’s presentation of Romeo & Juliet allows for certain production latitudes. For example, it isn’t often that the playbill for Williams Shakespeare’s most famous play contains the following disclaimer: “This production contains cigarette smoke.” But, smoke it does, as Evan Rachel Wood graced the stage alongside her father, brother and a terrific cast during the Saturday afternoon, May 16, performance I attended, the second of six sold-out shows that conclude on Tuesday, May 19.
Despite the change in milieu, the play’s characters and prose remains largely untouched. Its tragic underpinning still packs a wallop, even if the Bard’s comic repartee now often flies by on anachronistic wings. Noteworthy performances among the supporting cast include Shaw University grad Rasool Jahan as the Nurse, Theatre mainstay David Henderson’s seamless rendering of Friar Laurence, and Matthew Rubolino’s Benvolio. And, Ira David Wood IV—who also directs—more than embraces the scene-chewing role of Mercutio.
While musical accompaniment is expectantly minimal, several additions by director Wood left me scratching my head. During the famous Balcony Scene, the familiar and somewhat incongruous strains of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” are heard in the background. Later, Ennio Morricone’s Death Theme from The Untouchables plays during the death of Mercutio.
But, Evan Rachel Wood is the production’s star from the moment she first appears as Juliet. Her’s is not the most polished or showy performance. But, she exudes star quality, her radiant red hair, alabaster skin and lithe physique commanding the stage, whether she gleefully prances about in the throes of love, laments the loss of Romeo, or, yes, smokes. The unquestioned show-stopper, however, comes when Wood’s Juliet croons a rendition of the 1930’s standard “My Funny Valentine,” which held an enchanted audience on the edge of its collective seat.
The mercurial history of the Wood family—including the strained relationship between Evan and her locally renowned father, Ira David Wood III—is well-documented. This onstage reunion is partly an effort to continue their fence-mending. So, more than a few knowing chuckles were heard in the audience when Wood III’s Lord Capulet celebrates daughter Juliet’s willingness to finally obey her father and marry Paris by exclaiming, “My heart is wondrous light, since this same wayward girl is so reclaimed.”
Of course, remember that Juliet was pulling the wool over her father’s eyes.
Film, Theater David Henderson, Evan Rachel Wood, Ira David Wood III, Ira David Wood IV, Matthew Rubolino, Rasool Jahan
Neil Morris ·
4 Apr 2009, 1:49 AM ·
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The worst kept secret at this (or any) film festival is often the identity of the unpublicized “sneak preview” screening. Tonight, I attended the showing of this year’s Full Frame sneak, which I can now publicly reveal is director Ian Olds’ FIXER: THE TAKING OF AJMAL NAQSHBANDI, which played to positive reviews in January at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and will make its “official” North American premiere later this month at the Tribeca Film Fest in New York City. Olds, together with the late Garrett Scott, directed the acclaimed 2005 Iraq War doc OCCUPATION: DREAMLAND.
Olds’ latest revolves around the 2007 kidnapping and murder of an Afghan “fixer” – a local hired by foreign journalists to facilitate, translate, and gain access for their stories. Olds, who attended and participated in a post-screening Q&A, dovetails off the film’s central personal tragedy into a broader examination of the current travails plaguing the war in Afghanistan. It is not a transcendent film, but certainly one worth seeing.
During this second day of Full Frame, however, I was reminded of two things endemic to the festival each year. First, I am constantly amused by the bemused and/or semi-horrified looks that interstate/international visitors give the tray of chopped pork barbeque served for dinner in the hospitality suite and, come Sunday, the festival’s awards banquet.
Second, and far more unfortunately, is the grand tradition of grandstanding under the guise of rambling, rhetorical “questions” some self-aggrandizing filmgoers pose during post-screening Q&A sessions, particularly following such issue-oriented docs as FIXER. Please ask relevant questions about the films and filmmakers themselves; you aren’t going to solve the Middle East’s geopolitical strife with your two-minute blather inside Cinema 3.
Film, Full Frame
Neil Morris ·
2 Apr 2009, 4:26 PM ·
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Not to mix metaphors, but with the curtain raised on the 12th annual Full Frame Documentary Festival, the lid is off this year’s nominees for the festival’s major awards. Below is a list of nominees for the coveted Grand Jury Prize, Charles Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award, and HBO Emerging Filmmaker Award:
2009 Full Frame Grand Jury Competition Films
BURMA VJ
CARMEN MEETS BORAT
FORGETTING DAD
HAIR INDIA
OBLIVION
PINUCCIO LOVERO. A MIDSUMMER DEATH’S DREAM
THE QUEEN AND I
REPORTER
ROUGH AUNTIES
SHOUTING FIRE
SWEET CRUDE
UNIT 25
UNMISTAKEN CHILD
THE WAY WE GET BY
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC
2009 Full Frame Charles Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award Competition Films
45365
BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO
CALIFORNIA COMPANY TOWN
I BRING WHAT I LOVE: YOUSSOU NDOUR
LUBER ALOFT
OWNING THE WEATHER
PINUCCIO LOVERO. A MIDSUMMER DEATH’S DREAM
SAINT MISBEHAVIN’: THE WAVY GRAVY MOVIE
SAY MY NAME
SMILE ‘TIL IT HURTS: THE UP WITH PEOPLE STORY
SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON
SWEET CRUDE
UNMISTAKEN CHILD
THE VISITORS
VOICES FROM EL-SAYED
THE WAY WE GET BY
WILLIAM KUNSTLER: DISTURBING THE UNIVERSE
2009 Full Frame HBO Emerging Filmmaker Award Competition Films
45365
BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO
HAIR INDIA
I BRING WHAT I LOVE: YOUSSOU NDOUR
LOVE ON DELIVERY
LUBER ALOFT
OWNING THE WEATHER
PINUCCIO LOVERO. A MIDSUMMER DEATH’S DREAM
SAINT MISBEHAVIN’: THE WAVY GRAVY MOVIE
SAY MY NAME
SMILE ‘TIL IT HURTS: THE UP WITH PEOPLE STORY
SUPERMEN OF MALEGAON
SWEET CRUDE
THE VISITORS
VOICES FROM EL-SAYED
WAR AGAINST THE WEAK
Awards in these and other categories will be announced at the festival’s awards BBQ this Sunday.
Film, Full Frame awards
