THENEWYORKER,APRIL11, 2022 5
As New York City venues reopen, it’s
advisable to confirm in advance the
requirements for in-person attendance.
OPPOSITE: PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMEL SHABAZZ; RIGHT: ILLUSTRATION BY ELENI KALORKOTI
Does the world need more Julia Child content? The California-born,
French-trained chef and patron saint of home cooks has more or less dom-
inated culinary pop culture for decades. For the past twenty years, there has
been a veritable glut of Childiana: several biographies, published collections
of letters and recipes, reissues of her cookbook “Mastering the Art of French
Cooking,” at least two podcasts devoted to her life, and, perhaps most notably,
Nora Ephron’s jaunty bio-pic “Julie & Julia,” in which Meryl Streep played
Child with singsongy aplomb. One might wonder what terrain is left to
cover about duck terrine. And yet “Julia,” a new HBO Max series, from
the creator Daniel Goldfarb, manages to squeeze a bit more juice out of her
phenomenal rise from a humble housewife (who may or may not have been
a government spy) to the crown jewel of PBS’s programming slate. “Julia”
picks up where Ephron’s film leaves off, beginning with the publication
of Child’s wildly successful first book and following her path to television
stardom. The British actress Sarah Lancashire, who embodies Child in both
roostery vocal tone and lanky stature, is a bona-fide star herself. The show can
drag at points, but ultimately it builds to a rich, buttery finish.—Rachel Syme
ONTELEVISION
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THETHEATRE
At the Wedding
Bryna Turner’s slight if zippy one-act (it clocks
in at seventy minutes) serves as a deserved star
vehicle for the fantastically fiery Mary Wiseman,
who appears in every scene as Carlo, a wedding
crasher whose pugnacious wit and jaundiced
anti-sentimentalism can’t hide her bruised heart.
Carlo has shown up to the Northern Califor-
nia barn-chic nuptials of her ex Eva (Rebecca
S’manga Frank), where she spars with a snooty
bridesmaid (Keren Lugo), flirts with an allur-
ing stranger (Han Van Sciver), commiserates
with the bride’s acerbic mother (Carolyn Mc-
Cormick), tolerates a hopeless romantic (Will
Rogers), and orders too many drinks from a kind
waiter (Jorge Donoso), as she attempts to win
back her lost love—who has just tied the knot
with a man. Directed by Jenna Worsham, the
play offers a comic portrait of a dark night of the
soul, and of a contemporary queer community
navigating the age-old marriage plot.—Alex-
andra Schwartz (Claire Tow; through April 24.)
Confederates
This new play by Dominique Morisseau, for
Signature Theatre Company, has as its spine
a photograph: a Black woman sits facing the
camera, a white child suckling at her breast.
The image works on two levels—as a form of
documentary truth about the past and as mock-
ing hate-graffiti in the present. Accordingly, it
informs two strands of plot, both set in “pecu-
liar institutions”: a Civil War-era slave-escape
thriller and the tale of a Black professor wading
through racial trouble at a university. This is as
much a work of visual art as a drama: the direc-
tor, Stori Ayers, turns fleet temporal switches
into a fashion show; the costume designer, Ari
Fulton, makes a symbolic meal out of the color
red. Analogies between today’s race challenges
and slavery are always fraught and often bad,
but Morisseau navigates this one with her
characteristic flexibility and formal mastery,
modulating from scene to scene with musical
precision.—Vinson Cunningham (Pershing Square
Signature Center; through April 24.)
7 Minutes
This play by Stefano Massini (“The Lehman
Trilogy”), newly translated into English by
Francesca Spedalieri and directed by Mei Ann
Teo (produced by Waterwell, in association
with Working Theatre), tells a compact story
based on real events. Eleven members of a
textile factory’s union executive committee—all
female or gender-nonconforming—argue over
how to vote on a befuddlingly simple proposal
from their new corporate overlords: no layoffs
at the factory, the suits promise, if everybody
gives up seven minutes of their fifteen-min-
ute break. It’s not much of an argument at
first—only Linda (Ebony Marshall-Oliver),
the committee’s spokesperson, who has relayed
this offer, has a problem with the idea initially.
What unfolds, however, is less a comment on
class struggle than a disquisition on how diffi-
cult it is to transmit a small, nagging thought
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DANCE
“A Benefit for Ukraine”
iHeartDance NYC, an organization that has
been putting on shows to support dancers during
the pandemic, now presents a benefit to raise
money for humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The
lineup includes stars of New York City Ballet
and American Ballet Theatre (Sara Mearns
and Isabella Boylston, among others), as well
as Ukrainian dancers.—Brian Seibert (Florence
Gould Hall Theatre; April 9.)
Candoco Dance Company
Candoco, based in London, is devoted to ex-
panding the idea of what a dancer is, by present-
ing works that are accessible to both disabled
and nondisabled members of the company.
Trisha Brown’s “Set and Reset,” which incorpo-
rates improvised movement and is set to a cool,
breathy score by Laurie Anderson, is a fantastic
calling card for the company’s BAM début. The
other work on the program, “Face In,” is by the
Israel-based Yasmeen Godder. The dancers,
bathed in beautiful pastel light and moving to an
electronic score, engage in surrealist seductions
and playful power dynamics.—Marina Harss
(BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House; April 8-9.)
City Center Dance Festival
The festival closes with Dance Theatre of Har-
lem and the Martha Graham Dance Company,
performing on alternating nights. The week
opens on April 5, with Dance Theatre of Harlem
bringing its signature blend of classical ballet
(excerpts from Petipa’s exotique “Le Corsaire”),
neoclassical ballet (Robert Garland’s “Higher
Ground,” set to Stevie Wonder songs), and
cutting-edge contemporary dance (Annabelle
Lopez Ochoa’s “Balamouk”). The Graham troupe
from one mind to the next. Marshall-Oliver,
a brilliant, methodical performer, reveals that
gentle strain, transcending a sometimes awk-
ward text.—V.C. (HERE; through April 10.)
