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In the “traveling extravaganza” that film pasticheur cum homagist Guy Maddin has managed to concoct (11-piece live orchestra, an alleged “castrato,” a trio of Foley artists goosing up the sound—door rappings, foghorns, et cetera) as Sensurround accompaniment to his latest quasi-silent coup de theatre, Brand Upon the Brain! (playing through May 31 at the Music Box, though the live-action garnish was limited to last weekend), he’s also designated a “special guest narrator” to comment on the action and insert whatever voice effects seem necessary or desirable . . . like a modern benshi, I guess. Filling this slot so far have been Isabella Rossellini, Geraldine Chaplin, Eli Wallach, Lou Reed (who apparently balked at Maddin’s invitation to “turn [the] melodrama dials to 11”), and of course Glover, always a prince, camping it up like crazy at assorted venues along the show’s itinerary. Not to mention Pulitzer-winning versifier and all-around literary goof-off John Ashbery . . . like, say what? How’d he get in there?
“Now, John Ashbery has never been anything but the sweetest and most agreeable man, but I wouldn’t dream of asking him to change his reading persona one iota. I’ll direct him to stress, in his own shrewd and microscopic way, certain expositionally vital facts, and other than that he will be the public John Ashbery you know. Very unmelodramatic, I imagine, but with plenty of sublimated Rin-Tin-Tin.”
