Shariq’s Département

As we go through our own economic and financial tempest, there has been a renewed interest in Shakespeare’s late magical play “The Tempest”.  The Classic Stage Company (CSC) has mounted a fantastic production with Mandy Patinkin as Prospero, which is ending this weekend, and new reports indicated that Helen Mirren has signed on for a film version with her playing a female Prospero.

And indeed, the play, which was my favourite when I was growing up, begins with a frightening tempest.  I literally almost fell out of my seat with the dramatic sound and light effects of the beginning, as fantastically staged by the CSC.  The chaos, the swirling, unknown spiral of the tempest is beautifully staged, much like the financial tempest we are facing today.

As the storm blows over, the stage is set for a releasing of past wrongs and hurts to try and move to a new way of forgiveness, peace and understanding.  Prospero, the former Duke of Milan, who was usurped by his brother Antonio and banished to an deserted island, has developed his metaphysical side, and working with the weather and angelic beings, has created the Tempest.  Ostensibly, his goal is  to bring his brother, Antonio, and the royal party with him to the island for punishment.

Prospero, as played by the fantastic Mandy Patinkin, intones and chants his words as if he were weaving a magic spell, and indeed sound is very powerful in this play, as Ariel, the lead angel who works for Prospero, uses music and noise to effect change amongst all the people shipwrecked from Antonio’s ship.  Propero’s daughter, Miranda, played as a man-hungrey nymphet by Elizabeth Waterston, falls in love with Sebastian, the heir to Naples, shipwrecked on the island, and Prospero does not discourage her.  The sexual tension between Miranda and Ferdinand is palpable in the staging, and we feel something new is about to be born.

Just as Prospero was usurped by his brother Antonio, a subplot in the play shows the King of Naples, Alonso, threatened by his own brother, Sebastian, who sees the shipwreck as an opportunity to gain his own material and powerful ascent to the thrown.

But Prospero’s solution is a different kind of ascension, one to peace, harmony and unity.  Towards the end of the play, Ferdinand and Miranda are revealed played a game of chess, of white vs. black, the classic symbol of duality.  But they leave the game, getting bored as the rest of the cast stumble on them, and learn about their love.  Their union as one, forms the third leg of all the dualities of Prospero vs. Antonio, Alonso vs. Sebastian, Caliban vs. Prospero, creating a closed, stable triangle of harmony.

Forgiveness and love is in the air as all the cast members, by the end of the play, are embracing each other, wondering what spell it was that allowed them to see each other as the enemy.

As we weather the financial and other storms over the next few months, for a lot of us, the material and external worldly goals that motivated us exclusively will tend to fall away as we move away from a me vs. the world mentality to one that sees that we are all in this together.

T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” has a whole section of the poem referring to “A Game of Chess”, like the one Miranda and Ferdinand were playing:

And we shall play a game of chess
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door

He seems to be inspired by Shakespeare:

O O O that Shakespeherian Rag
It’s so elegant
So intelligent

And we move through a tempest, or as Eliot calls, it “Death by water” to a new spiritual rebirth. 

The poem ends with the invocation “Shantih Shantih Shantih”  - Peace and prosperity to all.

P. and I tried “Pranna” last night, the new pan-Asian restaurant that just opened this week on 28th and Madison, and were surprised at how good the food was.  The flavor combinations were unusual and surprising, even for New Yorkers who think they’ve tasted it all.

I started with a scallops sitting atop a Tom Yum, garbanzo and hazelnut puree.  The flavors were tangy in a typical Asian style, but what was really unusual was the bunch of mint leaves in the middle, not meant for adornment but as an interactive seasoning to play with the sauce.  And, the effect is quite magical as you interveave a mint leaf with a bit of scallop and the hazelnut puree.  Very memorable.   P. also enjoyed his cuttlefish, seaweed and Japanese eggplant salad.  We were so into the food that we forgot to take pictures of these first two dishes.

Before the appetizers, we were served nice, light, airy naan bread with delicious dipping sauces, like Tabla.  Except the naans here seemed lighter, and less dense, so there was space left for the rest of the meal.

For mains, I had a hanger steak that was a KNOCKOUT! The meat was crisply cooked and had a cumin crust (picture 1).  These meat flavors were amplified by the sauce, a rich mix of sprouted moong salad, candlenut, guajillo peppers and winter berry compote.  This has become my favourite steak dish in the city now!  I have to go back.  P. ate a Chatham cod dish with crab dumplings and a corn cilantro cake that he said was also very good.

We both had a wonderful meal, and had a nice bottle of Languedoc Merlot red that was a well-priced alternative of light wine that accompanied the food well (picture 3).

We ended with a chocolate souffle (picture 4), and, as you might expect, it was sinful but deeply satisfying.

The ambience at Pranna is great, the seating is roomy and the service is attentive and solicitous.  Go now before it gets discovered and reservations are hard to come by!

“Tulpan” the unexpectedly resonant movie about the harsh life and beauty of the Kazakhstan Steppe, which won the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes this year, was one of the final showings at the NY Film Festival.

The hero, Asa, an iconoclastic former sailor who wants to become a herder on the steppe, like his traditional brother-in-law, must find a wife to be considered legitimate.  Part of the movie is his attempt to woo Tulpan, the only woman apparently of age and available in this desolate, sparse landscape.  But really the movie is more about Asa’s colorful personality and attempts to bring joy and beauty to a harsh, conservative mindset.  He is an artist, loves playing with children and seems in another world sometimes.  Yet, he harmonizes with the beauty of nature and the landscape.  And when he delivers a baby lamb on his own, in one of the most amazing animal birth scenes ever captured on film, he communes with Nature in a holistic way that allows him to regain confidence and move forward.

At some level, the movie is about finding your truth, even if others, the more traditional ones, try to undermine you.  Believe in yourself and just move forward.  And you might just discover how magnificent you truly are.

For New Yorkers stuck in a concrete jungle with few outlets for sky, sun and nature, it is a reminder for us take time out of our busy schedules to just be within the landscape, even in a small Park to find that part of us that is connected to the Earth.  And then we find the smile, the beautiful singing voice as children often do; and, in fact, Asa’s nephew and niece in their “tak-a-tak” horseplaying and singing, respectively remind adults to play and find beauty in the simple joys of life.

The film is still looking for a US distributor, but it has been submitted for the Foreign Film category at the Oscars.  So, if it gains traction, you might be able to find it in a cinema.  And, of course, it will find its way to DVD eventually.

Although Lunetta, a Manhattan outpost of a Brooklyn Italian restaurant, opened in the Flatiron district almost a year ago, P. and I didn’t make it over there till last night, and we were really impressed!

The mood is calm, relaxing.  The service is solicitous, and the cavernous dining room lends a sense of space to what has become an increasingly oppressive month in New York.

I started with an Octopus appetizer (picture 1) which was a true standout.  The octopus was beautifully charred and crisped on the outside, while the accompanying salad mixed celery and radishes in a zingy lemony vinaigrette - very clean flavours and highly delicious.  P. had the risotto balls with tomato sauce (picture 2), which he enjoyed very much (although I managed to grab one).

We both had the tuna main (picture 3) - and we both ordered the fish at different temperatures, and both pieces were cooked exactly as we ordered them (one medium and one well done) - this is a rare Manhattan kitchen willing to be in tune with its customers.

Dessert was a decadent chocolate fling (picture 4).  Need I say more?

Lucretia Martel, the talented Argentinian director who took “The Headless Woman” to Cannes in 2008, presenting a film for the second time in competition, is very much focused on mood, tonal changes and internal dissonances set within familial and societal class mileus.

The middle-aged woman at the center of this movie, recently screened at the New York Film Festival, seems unsteady.  She is kind, a wife, mother and dentist.  Yet she has an unfocused gaze and dyes her hair blonde, but she does not really seem to care about it.  Then she hits and kills a peasant boy on the road while reaching for a cell phone, driving away in a panic.  Now, she begins to unravel.  The actress, Maria Onetto, beautifully conveys this sense of internal dread, embarrassment, sadness and isolation within a crowded domestic and social environment.  The distant gaze in her eyes is expanded, and we feel that she has been already beheaded, a summary execution that in a way was expected.

She becomes a metaphor for the dissolving of societal institutions, such as large-scale banking, that no longer work.  The crash has already occurred, and now the sense of dread is there because things can never be the same.

That the movie might end more positively doesn’t undo this sense that class divisions, the basis for Onetto’s belief that she can get away with this crime, are inherently unjust and fragile.  Although Onetto might continue with her family life and change the color of her hair, she, like the rest of her family is shot out of focus in the last five minutes of the movie.  Her status of privilege is slowly dissolving.  It’s only a matter of time.  And so it is as we move into the New World extolled by Echarte Tolle.  Just as she is continually seeking water, showers and baths to nourish her, we are about to move on from ‘The Waste Land’ described by T.S. Eliot to a nourishing rain which dissolves that which must now be transformed.