DYSFUNCTIONAL FUN
By Ben Verde It’s another fine family mess!
Park Slope’s local theater
company has taken an odd,
spiky script about disappointment
and dissatisfaction and produced a
delightful, uproarious comedy.
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha
and Spike,” at Gallery Players
through March 8, is a play from
Tony-award winning absurdist
playwright Christopher Durang.
It focuses on three siblings, each
cursed with the name of a Chekhov
character by their late professor
parents.
Vanya (played by Jon Krupp)
and Sonia (Dawn Evans) live
together in the rural Pennsylvania
home they grew up in. The pair
lead a life of sad, quiet idleness
after the death of their parents,
interrupted only by weekly visits
from their zany housekeeper
Cassandra (Casterline Villar), who
— like her mythological namesake
— offers prophecies of the future
that go ignored.
Things kick into motion when
the prodigal daughter Masha (Jenny
Lee Mitchell), who left years ago
to become a movie star, roars back
into town for unspecified reasons,
bringing along her new beau Spike
(Zach Barela) — a beefy but dimwitted
boytoy, who hilariously
strips down to his underwear in
his first appearance and remains
in a state of undress for some time.
Masha soon ropes her siblings
Role call: The Gallery Players production has an ace cast in (from left) Vanya (Jon
Krupp) and Sonia (Dawn Evans) and Spike (Zach Barela) and Masha (Jenny Lee
Mitchell). Photo by Steven Pisano Pretty in pink: Angélica Negrón sings and plays accordian and small
into attending an apparently glitzy
costume party — inexplicably
being held in rural Bucks County,
Pennsylvania — convincing Vanya
to play one of the Seven Dwarfs to
her Snow White.
The cast is excellent, bringing
warmth and humor to the stories
bleak situations, landing some
awkward jokes with grace, and
playing grandiose characters that
fill the small Park Slope theater
to the back row. As Sonia, Dawn
Evans shines especially bright,
offering a convincing portrayal
of a woman determined to turn
her life around after years of
disappointments. Jon Krupp is
expertly cast as Vanya, a man
unwilling to let his bitterness
COURIER L 38 IFE, FEB. 28-MAR. 5, 2020
betray his better instincts.
The writing sputters at times
— it doesn’t seem to know how
to handle the absurdity of some
of its situations, and an early
line about Sonia pining after her
brother (she’s adopted) is dropped
and never mentioned again. But the
cast breathes life into a sometimes
stale script, turning what could
have been a flop into a comedic
triumph through sheer chemistry.
“Vanya and Sonia and Masha
and Spike” at Gallery Players (199
14th St. between Fourth and Fifth
avenues in Park Slope, (212) 352–
3101, www.galleryplayers.com).
Thu–Fri at 8 pm. Sat at 2 pm and
8 pm; Sun at 3 pm through March
8. $25.
By Meg Capone Move over, tacos!
A little-known
Mexican stew known as
pozole will take center stage as
a new food and spirits festival
coming to Williamsburg this
weekend. “Bowl of ‘Zole,” at
Biba on March 29, will feature 10
different variations on the meaty
soup, which deserves to be as well
known as ramen, said the founder
of the fest.
“There are a million ramen
joints in the city, why not pozole?”
asked chef Danny Mena, “It’s d—
delicious!”
The flavorful soup, made with
hominy, peppers, and pork or
chicken, “knows no social class
and is as Mexican as it gets,” said
Mena.
Visitors to the event can sample
10 different types of pozole
created by local chefs. The bowls
will include traditional flavors,
including Pozole Rojo, a common
chili-based pozole, as well as more
exotic creations such as a matzo
ball pozole, created by chefs at
Williamsburg’s Hotel Indigo.
But the different chefs are not
competing with each other, said the
event’s producer.
“We didn’t want a competitive
atmosphere,” said Jimmy Carbone,
“Actually, it’s not really a festival
so much as it’s an intimate tasting
event.”
Carbone, a restaurateur
and founder of Food Karma
Projects, the company putting on
the festival, said that he wants
to shine a light on neglected and
under-appreciated Mexican food
and drink, with more dishes to be
featured at upcoming events.
“This is just the beginning,”
he said.
The “Bowl of ‘Zole” will also
feature samples of the liquor
mezcal, with more than 50 varieties
of the agave-based spirit available
to taste. Tipplers who fall in love
with a particular brand will be
able to order a bottle for delivery,
using an online link available at
the event.
Chefs at the event will create
extra batches of pozole to donate
to food rescue group City Harvest,
said Carbone, which will also
receive a percentage of profits.
“Bowl of ’Zole” at Biba (110
Kent Ave. between N. Seventh and
N. Eighth streets in Williamsburg,
www.bowlofzole.com). Feb. 29; 1–4
pm. $55 ($125 VIP).
By Kevin Duggan Would you like to ride
with their beautiful
Balún?
A Bushwick band will
play its blend of dream pop
and Puerto Rican rhythms to
launch the 2020 House Sessions
concert series at Bric on March
5. Balún layers synth-laden
sounds over a popular 1990s
Caribbean rhythm known as
dembow, creating a new sound
the musicians dub “Dreambow.”
The music connects them
to their native island and to
the past, said the band’s
frontwoman.
“There was certainly an
element of nostalgia that came
in but it was also a way for us
to reconnect with the island,”
said Angélica Negrón, who
sings and plays accordion for
the band.
Negrón and her bandmates
formed as an indie-rock
group in Puerto Rico in the
early 2000s and they released
their debut full-length record
“Something Comes Our Way”
in 2006, shortly before moving
to Brooklyn. Their music
already had a subtle influence
from dembow, which Negrón
attributes to being surrounded
by reggaeton and other popular
music of the Caribbean.
While in New York, the
band’s Puerto Rican influences
stood out from their peers, and
the band began to deliberately
highlight those elements,
adding the accordion and
traditional string instruments
like the tiple and the cuatro to
the mix, according to Negrón.
“It was something we just
took for granted, but when
we moved out slowly it just
became more of something
we carefully thought about,”
she said. “It came out very
naturally. It was almost a stream
of consciousness.”
In 2010, the band published
“Memoria Textil,” inspired by
early 8-bit video game music,
but the group’s 2018 album
“Prisma Tropical,” brought
all their eclectic influences
together for a powerful sound.
“We’re embracing the
totality of who we are more,”
Negrón said.
Negrón’s lyrics, which
are all in Spanish, often deal
with the experience of living
between two different places,
the musician said.
“That connects to being part
of a diaspora and this experience
of going back and forth between
places you call home, this kind
of push and pull,” she said.
At the March 5 concert,
the band will open for Chilean
musician Álex Anwandter, who
will bring his 1980s-influenced
dance music and songwriting to
the show.
“Balún” at Bric House 647
Fulton St. at Rockwell Place in
Fort Greene, (718) 855–7882,
www.bricartsmedia.org. March
5 at $18 ($15 in advance).
’Zole models
percussion for the six-piece Balún, which will play the Bric House on
March 5. Liz Smalls
Zole man: Chef Danny Rena organized
the pozole tasting session on Feb. 29.
Photo by La Pozolería
Dreamy dembow
Bushwick band blends dreampop
with Puerto Rican beats
‘Vanya, Sonia, Masha, and Spike’ a hit at Gallery Players
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