(718) 260–2500 Brooklyn Paper’s essential guide to the Borough of Kings August 9–15, 2019
THEATER
Nerd of Avon
What a piece of work is a Batman!
A new play combines the poetry of Shakespeare
with the thrilling action of superheroes. “Batman of
Gotham,” playing on Aug. 12 at Prospect Heights
nerd bar the Way Station, is part of a monthly series
of shows that mash up Shakespearean plays
with science-fiction and fantasy pop culture. The
upcoming production, a sort of Midsummer Dark
Knight’s Dream, will bring the Elizabethan playwright’s
little-known drama “Timon of Athens”
into the world of underground mobs and crimefighting
bats, said the play’s writer.
“It’s like performing Batman as Shakespeare,
or if Shakespeare had written Batman,” said Jonathan
Galvez.
Galvez and his writing partner Michael Hagins
create the scripts for the Way Station Companions,
a group of about 14 regulars of the bar who
come together to perform on its stage on the second
Monday of each month. Past performances
have mixed the cartoon “Rick and Morty” with
“Julius Caesar,” “Game of Thrones” with “Richard
III,” and “Doctor Who” with “The Tempest,”
said Galvez, creating fast-paced plays from the
Bard’s original text.
“We keep the majority of the Shakespeare
text,” he said. “We edit it down to about an hour
long, but most of the dialogue comes from Shakespeare.”
Adding a fun pop culture element can draw
in an audience that might be turned away by a
show filled with 17th-century iambic pentameter,
said Galvez.
“It makes the Shakespeare accessible,” he
said. “Not a lot of people are going to be willing
to go to a production of ‘Timon of Athens,’
but a lot of people will go see ‘Batman.’ It kind
of creates a cross-appreciation of both.”
And audiences are sure to get a buzz from
the drinking game that accompanies each dramatic
staging. For the upcoming Dark Knight,
that will mean swigging sips each time the Joker
laughs, or the “Pow!” sound effect plays.
“That’s nothing compared to previous shows,”
said Galvez. “When we did ‘Rick and Morty,’
you had to drink every time a curse word was
said — and there were basically curse words
every five seconds.”
“Batman of Gotham” at the Way Station 683
Washington Ave. between St. Marks Avenue
and Prospect Place in Prospect Heights, (347)
627–4949, www.thewaystationbk.com. Aug. 12
at 8:30 p.m. Free. — Aidan Graham
By Bill Roundy
Brooklyn Paper
This “Heart” will go on and on!
A Bushwick burlesque show inspired
by “Alice in Wonderland” will continues
its journey down the rabbit hole past
its expected end date in August. “Queen
of Hearts,” from Company XIV, has extended
its run until Nov. 2, its founder announced
last week.
“It’s been doing really well, and the audience
has been strong and so we want to
keep the party going,” said Austin Mc-
Cormick, who also directs and choreographs
the show.
The opulent extravaganza opened in the
Company’s baroque Theater XIV in March,
dazzling audiences with dancing rabbits,
musical Cheshire cats, and a set of buff,
scantily-clad playing cards. The three-act
show includes 33 musical numbers, incorporating
comedy vaudeville routines, aerial
acts, ballet, and opera, alongside saucy
burlesque performances.
The sheer variety of the night has led
some audience members to return two or
three times, said McCormick.
“A surprising number of people come
multiple times,” he said. “There’s a lot going
BURLESQUE
on and so much to see, so people want
to try it multiple times, to see if from a different
angle.”
The show’s combination of theater and
nightlife draws a diverse audience, McCormick
said, but one consistent thread has been
couples out for night on the town.
“We have these champagne-inclusive
couches for two — a lot of those are taken by
people on dates, or people trying to impress
their significant others,” he noted. “There’s
a lot of canoodling on those couches.”
The current show has the same acts as
when it started six months ago, but the actors
have added depth and nuance to their
performances, said McCormick, as they
became more familiar with the roles and
with how audiences react to them, said the
director.
“Our show depends so much on audience
interaction, so they’ve really had a
chance to play with that,” he said.
The performers also act as guides and bartenders,
leading audience members through
the Company’s space, which McCormick
describes as “the court of Louis the 14th
meets a Brooklyn speakeasy.”
When “Queen of Hearts” closes in November,
Company XIV will return with its
annual naughty holiday show “Nutcracker
Rouge,” on Nov. 14. A new, as yet unnamed
production will follow in the spring.
BOOKS
Reading picks
Community Bookstore’s pick:
“The Crystal World,” by J.G Ballard
This utterly unique novel follows an English
doctor sent to a remote leper colony in the African
interior. Floating
upriver, he discovers a
swiftly growing region of
petrified jungle. Things
really get interesting
when this strange crystallization
of life forms
is linked to a “leak in
time.” Ballard’s recently
republished 1966 masterpiece
reads like a posthuman
“Heart of Darkness,”
and now features a
brilliant forward by Robert MacFarlane.
— Samuel Partal, Community Bookstore 43
Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield
Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.
commu nityb ookst ore.net .
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick:
“Say Say Say,” by Lila Savage
Lila Savage drew on
her decade of experience
as a caregiver for her fantastic
debut novel. It is
a warm and empathetic
book with a well-drawn
interiority for its young,
millennial caregiver protagonist,
Ella. It is like
a procedural for emotional
labor; the kind of
book where the decision
whether or not to read the
newspaper at work can be
gripping and relatable.
— Matt Stowe, Greenlight Bookstore 686
Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland
Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200,
www.greenlightbookstore.com .
Word’s picks: “Five-Finger Discount,” by
Helene Stapinski
The piecemeal redemption of Helene Stapinski’s
outlaw family
roughly approximates
Jersey City’s troubled ascent
from its inception as
a city of smokestacks and
vice to legitimacy. The
author’s family was embroiled
in the urban corruption
that caricatured
New Jersey for generations,
and “Five-Finger
Discount” chronicles Helene
Stapinski’s life from
within a criminal enterprise,
and discusses what comes after.
— Steven Warren, Word 126 Franklin St. at
Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096,
www.wordbookstores.com .
“Queen of Hearts” at Theatre XIV (383
Troutman St. between Wyckoff and
Irving avenues in Bushwick, (866) 811–
4111, www.CompanyXIV.com). Thu–Sat
at 8 pm through Nov. 2. $85–$155 (VIP
couches for two $325–$475).
By Kevin Duggan
Brooklyn Paper
That’s a lot of bier, folks!
A Carroll Gardens brewhouse
recently completed a massive expansion,
allowing it to quadruple its
output of beer and experiment with
new styles of tasty suds. Folksbier
Brauerei has expanded its Luquer
Street production facility from
three barrels to 10, which will help
it to quench the thirst of even more
Brooklyn beeristas with its popular
German-style lagers, sours, and ales,
according to its founder.
“It was a long time coming,” said
Travis Kauffman. “We had always
intended to get up to a larger scale
when we opened.”
The brewer launched the operation
in 2014, when he single-handedly
started making beers in a restaurant’s
storage space. When the
eatery closed two years later, he annexed
the space and turned it into a
tasting room.
Kauffman and his team took advantage
of the new, larger tanks to
make Folksbier’s first double-hopped
India Pale Ale, dubbed Batch 001,
which is stronger than the brewery’s
usual fare in both taste and alcohol
content, and which quickly became
a hit among customers.
“We are sold out now. We’re working
on another batch and we’ll have
one out within a month,” Kauffman
said. “The hops are all aromatic and
there’s a soft fluffy mouth feel — but
it’s well balanced.”
Kauffman and his team are also
pumping out larger amounts of their
bestseller Old Bavarian Lager, and new
versions of their popular sour Glow Up
series, to which they add unusual seasonal
flavors such as cucumber and lime,
BEER
Folksbier 101 Luquer St. between
Clinton Street and the BQE
in Carroll Gardens, www.folksbier.
com. Taproom open Monday
and Thursday 4–11 p.m., Friday 2
p.m.–midnight, Saturday noon–
midnight, Sunday noon–10 p.m.,
closed Tuesday and Wednesday.
raspberry, and blackberry. The brewers
also experimented with adding fermented
leftover bagels from Blackseed
Bagels to the Glow Up series, giving
the beverage a bread-like tang.
“It does give it a certain breadiness in
a really nice way,” Kauffman said.
A series of these constantly-rotating
brews are available on tap in the
brewery’s tasting room, which also
features a menu of Mexican dishes to
pair with your beverage. The brewery
also plans to invite guest chefs to
host different pop-up foods.
Kauffman is already looking to
grow even further. He is setting up
a lager-focused brewery in Red Hook,
where he plans to make tasty beverages
soon, he said.
“We have a building and equipment,
so we’re just finishing up our expansion
on Luquer Street and it would be
great to see it through end of year or
early next year,” he said.
Long live
the Queen
Burlesque show extends its run
Down the rabbit hole: The cast of “Queen of Hearts” crowns a new monarch, and
the Mad Hatter sings overhead, in a show loosely based on “Alice in Wonderland.”
Mark Shelby Perry
Lager getting larger
Little Carroll Gardens brewery now super-sized
A big sip: The founder of Folksbier Brauerei Travis Kauffman enjoys
a glass of his Old Bavarian Lager at the Luquer Street brewhouse
in Carroll Gardens. Photo by Caroline Ourso
That’s all!: Folksbier Brauerei
recently expanded its facility
allowing it to quadruple its output
of European-style brews.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
Mark Shelby Perry
/www.folksbi-er.com
/www.commu
/www.commu
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.wordbookstores.com
/www.CompanyXIV.com
/www.folksbi-er.com
/www.thewaystationbk.com
/www.folksbi-er.com
/www.thewaystationbk.com
/ore.net
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.wordbookstores.com
/www.CompanyXIV.com)