BLACK, WHITE AND RED ALL OVER
by Lewis Owens
The Grand Ballroom, New York Plaza Hotel, Saturday 26 November, 2016.
“I stood with the crowd outside the Plaza and watched all the notables go in – it was a marvellous spectacle and it was all reported most handsomely in this morning’s press – somehow I feel embarrassed and ashamed to attend such gatherings – some ancient radicalism must still be coursing through my veins. Your mother went and much enjoyed it – though she came home relatively early. Today she naturally has a headache. Nevertheless ruthlessly we go out to dinner with a Russian lady for whose sake, we are told, the famous Russian poet Mayakovsky committed suicide in 1930 – a startling political event, sensational in its day.” - Isaiah Berlin, letter to Philippe Halban, Tuesday 30 November 1966
Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 November 1966. New York. Charismatic author Truman Capote throws a lavish ball in the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza Hotel to celebrate the success of his iconic work In Cold Blood. The guests – wearing masks at Capote’s request: black for men, white for women – are drawn from the elite of current artistic and political society, including Mr and Mrs Leonard Bernstein, Mr and Mrs Richard Burton, Mr and Mrs Sammy Davis, Jr, Mr and Mrs Henry Fonda, Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Mrs John F. Kennedy, Shirley MacLaine, Mr and Mrs Frank Sinatra, Andy Warhol and Tennessee Williams. New York high society is at its peak of grandiosity and pomposity, while the war on communism rages rhetorically and literally, driven by President Lyndon B. Johnson’s aggressive approach to the Vietnam conflict. Isaiah Berlin, although attending one of the pre-party dinners, decides at the last moment not to attend the main event but rather watches the guests arrive at a slight distance from the excited crowds and reporters.
Isaiah and Aline Berlin Truman Capote Frank Sinatra and wife Mia Farrow arriving at the Ball
In marked contrast with the brash, egocentric and ‘masked’ world of 1960s New York high society typified by Capote’s ball, the following day Isaiah and Aline Berlin meet Tatyana Yakovleva, the muse of Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, who committed suicide in 1930. During this dinner, the Berlins’ and Yakovleva discuss the significance of Mayakovsky’s death and the importance of his 1929 work Klop (The Bed Bug) in the light of Capote’s In Cold Blood and the previous evening’s ball. Conducting a thought-experiment the Berlins’ and Yakovleva, like the protagonist Prisypkin in Mayakovsky’s tale, transport themselves 50 years into the future and ask: What will constitute the criminal mind and how will this influence the relation between art, society and politics in the year 2016? Black, White and Red All Over is a humorous yet biting depiction of high-society gossip, back- stabbing politics and ephemeral art. This play, planned for November 2016 (exactly 50 years after the episodes it depicts) is based on the correspondence surrounding these true events, much of which has hitherto remained largely unknown. It also features the music of Sinatra and Bernstein and the poetry of Mayakovsky.
Vladimir Mayakovsky Mayakovsky with Yakovleva
Black, White and Red All Over will take place at New York’s Plaza Hotel Grand Ballroom on Saturday 26 November, 2016. The event will be preceded by a reception and followed by a Gala Charity Dinner. London performances are expected to follow.
Recent praise for Owens’ Like a Chemist from Canada: Shostakovich, Isaiah Berlin and Oxford
London and Oxford, June/July 2015
"Dear Lewis, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed last night, and to congratulate you on having the imagination, and vision, and fortitude, to create as you did and then see it through. The piano piece with which the play concluded was incredibly powerful, and exhilarating, and beautiful, and its dramatic setting gave me a real sense of what it must have been to be an artist in that repressive environment. The music bursts forth, but it's also internalised, a conversation DS has within himself, because there is so much that he cannot share with the outside world, and I thought you brought that out really well, juxtaposed as the music was with the stifling and threatening world of Soviet bureaucracy, and the highly mannered world of the Oxford senior common room. So, bravo!" - Dr Mark Pottle, Wolfson College, Oxford University.
"A magical moment!" - Arnaud de Puyfontaine.
"A very touching and absorbing evening" - Annabel Arden
"A compelling philosophical and personal drama" – John Riley
"Illuminating and witty" - Robin Ashenden
"A very unusual and imaginative play" – Professor Peter Bien
"A thought-provoking snapshot" – Professor Peter Oppenheimer
"Written with intelligence and flair" – Dr Henry Hardy
"Poignant and moving" - Jessica Duchen
"Meticulously researched" - Alan Mercer