July in arts
Jodie Comer as UK's Marie Henein, and a wee return of Louis CK
Now that cultural life appears to be back on (?famous last words?) and my planner filling like it’s 2019, I will endeavour to open every month with a rundown of things coming up that are worth your time. I know many of you are not in Toronto, and this will be Toronto-centric, but I will be looking around for events outside the GTA and, why not, Canada. Tips welcome. The list will not be previews only; things already happening will come reviewed.
I haven’t been hustling paying subscriptions as much as perhaps I should have. If you find in Long Play something useful or fun, do consider getting a paid sub. I know there are many newsletters around, decent ones too, and of course the Substack over-saturation gets me thinking about what makes my own newsletter stand apart. The depth and breath, I’d say (I think I probably work too much on each individual post; serious question, what would you prefer, breezier but more frequent posts, or about 3-5 a month of this level of engagement?); Canadian and international focus (many of the best or most popular Substacks are American in their choice of topics, including some of the British ones); stuff that the dailies and magazines are barely covering (classical music and opera; visual arts; allophone literatures; countries outside the G7; history; sociology). What would you like to see more of, the first-person narration or the third-person analysis? More or fewer interviews? I should do a poll for subscribers soon, so I can hear their preferences in detail.
The number of paying subscribers to Long Play is in modest double digits but it is mighty and it gives me hope that this thing, which I know is worth doing, may also be financially viable eventually. If you aren’t ready to commit, it’s still good to have you (you really are an impressive bunch, readers). Mention Long Play to a friend, forward an issue that got you thinking. Word of mouth is fab.
And now to
Your July in Arts
Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire is now open at the AGO [to Oct 2022]. It is less monumental than the accompanying marketing would have you believe, and most items are on loan from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in NYC. (If you travel to NYC with some regularity, this may not be as exciting.) The emphasis is on arts—very Catholic, heavy on Baroque—and craftwork with some geography, trade and politics essentials thrown in. The large panels introducing sections can get a little preachy and/or grumpy, but lo, the wokeness/EDI in accompanying materials were not through the roof.
They did manage to honour one female artists from the early eighteenth who made a living from her work doing church art – as the museum copy explains, women painters usually had painter fathers who trained them in their workshops alongside other apprentices. Her art was as muscularly Catholic and gruesome as the rest of them, as you will see.
There’s one tiny Velasquez and one Goya portrait in the exhibit. Is it to keep the marketing department happy? Or, if we give it a generous read, those two are comparatively small in the grand Hispanic empire scheme of things? There are some odd lighting choices throughout the exhibit. The hand-drawn maps with microscopic names of places are to be found in a dimly lit room while elsewhere the big sculptures and the hand crafted blankets are basking under the spotlights.
There is a case (also weakly lit) showing a couple of printed Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz books from the seventeenth century and a decent panel above it on why some women chose convent over marriage.
Then you leave the exhibition and ramble around on the same floor and you get reminded how warehouse-y the AGO sometimes feels. The Henry Moore room is always pleasant but the Rodins have been put to a narrow annex adjacent to it, and should you avail yourself of the resting benches, you’ll be looking at the Rodins’ behinds.
That’s enough of that, I’m going to the African art section, I thought. Now that was entirely empty, undeservedly so. The African section is a ring of cases displaying gorgeous traditional Africana, which reminds you where Picasso, Giacometti and Brancusi got some of their ideas. Inside the ring, there’s gallery space reserved for a contemporary artist; Et la lumière fut, a series of Africanized and Picasso-ized Orthodox icons, was only vaguely interesting.
Single ticket to the AGO is $25, but their annual pass is currently at the very reasonable $35. Note that if you buy the pass, you may have to wait two days to get it in your inbox, and you will need to download the Wallet Pass app to open it. But at that price, and if you’re not in a rush, it’s worth the trouble. And you’ll be reusing the app for other stuff, eg. e-boarding passes.
In other visual arts…
What happens in silence [to September 3, 2022] at Corkin Gallery has several nutty pieces that should be experienced up close.
Su Sheedy is one of my favourites at the Muse Gallery and she’s back for a solo show July 21 – Aug 4.
Toronto Fringe
Long gone are the days in which a paper, any paper, would preview and curate from the million playlets on offer at the Fringe. It really pays to click the YouTube links, and visit artist websites, Twitter or Instagram. Here’s what I have in the bag for now:
Get a Dog, in which a wealthy woman “attends a therapy session, seeking help to reignite her passion for her one true love: money.”
Lesbihonest, a story of a thousand coming-outs. Lezzers are an endangered species so I am defo going.
Paco Erhard, worst German ever. A rare disorganized German shares his ideas on how to fix Canada.
Joan and Olivia: A Hollywood Ghost Story. I’ve developed a belated fandom for Olivia de Havilland so anything to do with her, I’m there.
Also looking good: Aliya Kanani, Where You From, From? | In a Café, at a Chapel | The Garden of Alla | Felt Cute (Might Delete Later). Once you eliminate sketch comedy, the musicals and the obviously unfunny stuff from the comedy options, it’s actually easy to come up with a plan. If you get the pass, you’ll still have to line up at the venue to collect your tickets – and then line up with the ticket holders to get in. To avoid queuing twice, buy the tickets in advance, even though they’re $2 more than the $12 tickets at the venue.
Further in theatre
I… can’t drum up any enthusiasm for this year’s Shaw Festival. [On Stratford another time.] Anybody seeing anything? I click on Cyrano, but then see those costumes and the nose and I lose the will to live. I click on Everybody, wondering what it is, and realize it’s an adaptation of the medieval morality tale Everyman, ridiculously renamed to be… inclusive? If anyone goes to see this, let me know what Branden Jacobs-Jenkins does with it. I’ve watched the National Theatre’s Everyman adapted by Carol Ann Duffy, dir. by Rufus Norris and it was excellent. Duffy clearly did not need to re-engineer the title to feel included.
Speaking of NT, there’s an NTLive screening in several Cineplex locations on July 21: Jodie Comer in a one-woman play Prima Facie about an attorney who brilliantly and defiantly defends men accused of sexual assault until… something happens to her. This has been getting excellent reviews in UK. “It’s not emotional for me… it’s the game. The game of law.” Trailer. Originally performed at the Harold Pinter Theatre.
Film
Claire Denis’ Both Sides of the Blade with Juliette Binoche in a sort of Jules-et-Jim-except-Jules-is-a-gangster setup and The Passengers of the Night, a quiet family drama set in Paris in 1980s starring Charlotte Ginsbourg, at Tiff Lightbox in July. Those of you who are enjoying Irma Vep the series will be interested in the screening of Olivier Assayas’ original Irma Vep the movie.
Last chance to catch Men, a surprisingly good folk horror drama with Jesse Buckley and Rory Kinnear still at the Carlton Cinema for a bit.
And, um, Louis CK’s new and very indie film is screening at Cineplex for one day only, if I am reading it correctly? I once purchased something to watch on his website and remained on the mailing list; the email about this new film arrived about a month ago. I think he’s personally renting the venues, as he’s without a distributor still? Fourth of July screens on July 8 and, says the blurb, is about a recovering alcoholic jazz pianist in NYC who confronts his acerbic family during their joint Fourth of July vacation.
See you soon!
L.P.
I like that you write about whatever suits your fancy every week, I wouldn't change recommend changing anything!