The New York Times - USA (2020-06-29)

THE WOMAN AND MANwho make up the en-

tire cast of Duncan Macmillan’s “Lungs,”

which is streaming in a beautifully acted

(and socially distanced) live production

from London’s Old Vic Theater, are people

who seldom think before they talk. Feelings

— big, sloppy, mixed, unedited, self-incrimi-

nating feelings — slosh out of them like the

contents of overfilled, foaming beer mugs

on a wobbly tray.

This nameless couple, longtime romantic

partners who probably shouldn’t be yet

have to be together, are portrayed by Claire

Foy and Matt Smith. As I watched them

break and reassemble each other’s hearts

with such seemingly spontaneous fervor, I

thought what a relief it must be for them af-

ter all that bottled-up time together in Buck-

ingham Palace.

Foy and Smith are best known these days

for playing another, less demonstrative set

of partners who have definite, very recog-

nizable names: Queen Elizabeth II and her

consort, Prince Philip, whom they embod-

ied exquisitely in the first two seasons of

“The Crown,” the popular Netflix series

about life among the Windsors. For that

royal pair, emotions were something to be

kept in check or manifested most discreetly.

Nonetheless, these performers were

skilled enough to let us sense the discom-

fort, doubt and resentment beneath the sur-

face of their stoical characters. I am happy

to report that Foy and Smith are equally

adept at delivering such ambivalence, com-

mon to nearly all long and intimate relation-

ships, at high volume and in equally high

gear. Occupying a dark and empty stage

that feels as vast as an endless night, they

transmit this complexity with a delicacy

and clarity well suited both to probing close-

ups and to long shots that suggest what the

view might be like from the Old Vic balcony.

Of course, there is no one sitting in the

BEN BRANTLEY THEATER REVIEW

Matt Smith and Claire Foy, shown during a

rehearsal, collapse decades of love and angst into

90 minutes in a Zoom performance of “Lungs.”

MANUEL HARLAN

Chasing Love in the Dark

In a play that streams live, Claire Foy and Matt Smith

portray a contradictory couple in an age of isolation.

CONTINUED ON PAGE C2

Lungs

Streaming through

Saturday from the

Old Vic Theater.

oldvictheatre.com

MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020 C1

N

NEWS CRITICISM

2 MUSEUMS

TikTok at the gallery.

BY ALEX MARSHALL

5 FILM

A Chinese moviemaker gets

his due. BY IAN JOHNSON

6 BOOKS

Three decades later,

a victim affirms

control with a

memoir. BY SARAH LYALL

Near the top of New York’s Mu-

seum Mile, north of the Cooper

Hewitt, a gem from the Gilded

Age, and the Guggenheim, itself a

Frank Lloyd Wright work of art,

and the classical majesty of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art, sits

the Museum of the City of New

York.

It, too, occupies a building of ar-

chitectural distinction, a five-

story, red brick and marble Geor-

gian Colonial-Revival, completed

in 1932 and the home of the mu-

seum ever since.

But it can be overlooked amid

the star power of its cultural

neighbors, even when it punches

above its weight with expansive

exhibitions like “New York at Its

Core,” which examines the city’s

history since 1609 or “Activist

New York,” which reviews the city

through the prism of social justice

and political agitation.

“If you had to pick one place to

learn about New York City, it

would probably be the Museum of

the City of New York,” said Ken-

neth T. Jackson, a former presi-

dent of the New-York Historical

Society and editor of the Encyclo-

pedia of the City of New York.

Though many museums are

struggling financially since the

pandemic forced them to close,

the city museum is among medi-

um or smaller ones that are facing

a particularly difficult path for-

ward. Like other institutions its

size, it has a modest but growing

endowment — $27 million — and

does not have a board of ex-

tremely wealthy donors who can

be called on to shore up its reve-

nue with immediate gifts.

Since closing in March, the mu-

seum has laid off 20 percent of its

100 full-time and full-time-equiva-

lent employees. Others have been

furloughed or are working fewer

hours.

Executive salaries were cut by

25 percent, said Whitney Don-

hauser, the museum’s director.

A City Museum

Struggles and Hopes

Looking past losses and

cutbacks and planning

for life beyond Covid.

CONTINUED ON PAGE C4

When the directors Grace Lee and Marjan By COLIN MOYNIHAN
Safinia talk about their new two-part docu-
mentary series, “And She Could Be Next,”
they compare the process of getting it
greenlit to mounting a political campaign.
They would know: In the series, which
was executive produced by Ava DuVernay
(premiering Monday on PBS and POV.org),
Lee and Safinia track the actual campaigns
— the door knocking, signposting, rallies
and forums — of several women of color
who ran for office in 2018.
The producers originally considered
telling a story about women in politics,
pegged to the first female president — Hil-
lary Clinton was eying the White House at
the time, and she was widely considered the
favorite. But 2016 had different plans. So
Lee reframed the project as something she
found more enticing anyway: a documenta-
ry not only about women but more specifi-
cally about women of color and their com-
munities, and the changes they are making
in American politics.
While pitching the series to networks and

On the Trail, Faces of Change

A two-part documentary

produced by Ava DuVernay

follows the campaigns of

female politicians of color.

CONTINUED ON PAGE C6

Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, as seen in the documentary “And She Could

Be Next,” which tracks the 2018 political campaigns of several women of color.

PBS

By MAYA PHILLIPS