‘Drive My Car’: In this quiet Japanese masterpiece, a widower travels to Hiroshima to direct an experimental version of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.”.‘Passing’: Set in the 1920s, the movie centers on two African American women, friends from childhood, who can and do present as white.‘Spencer’: Kristen Stewart stars as an anguished, rebellious Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín’s answer to “The Crown.”.‘Summer of Soul’: Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Mavis Staples and others shine in Questlove’s documentary about the Harlem Cultural Festival.Scott and Manohla Dargis, selected their favorite movies of the year.
Brand promises an appearance by his dog, Bear (perhaps timed to his exit, so he can be pursued by Bear). He is now reprising a one-man show he conceived with the director Ian Rickson and developed in 2018, in which he uses Shakespeare’s writings to illuminate his own story. Those who associate Russell Brand only with his excesses and shock tactics may be surprised by his quieter mien these days - he’s become the kind of guy who occasionally finds life lessons in sonnets. Audience members lucky enough to be in Manchester can see it in real life through July 17, and the rest of us can watch from home from July 15-18. McKen’s show stars Uche Abuah, Michelle Asante and Itoya Osagiede. “My brother Chuks called to tell me, and I came undone,” she wrote in an essay that The New Yorker published in September. One day in June 2020, Adichie learned that her father - with whom she had chatted just a day earlier - died. The show is bound to be compared to the Joan Didion memoir-turned-play “The Year of Magical Thinking.”
Of particular interest to theater audiences is “Notes on Grief,” Rae McKen’s adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay-turned-book about her father’s sudden death. This year, we don’t have to wait, as the festival is making some of its offerings available online - an approach we hope will become commonplace among international gatherings. Productions from the multidisciplinary Manchester International Festival often end up traveling around the world, making pit stops at well-heeled performing arts centers.