MIRROR, MIRROR

A drama in the East Village involving sexual ambiguity is not in itself newsworthy; in fact, it would make news if there were not plays in the Village on this subject. But “Narcisse,” which ended a brief stint Sunday at the Theater for the New City, is noteworthy as the American premiere of a work by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Enlightenment philosopher.

As a philosopher, Rousseau, along with John Locke, profoundly influenced democratic political theory. Outside of philosophy, Rousseau is remembered for a dramatic life that included running away as a teenager, leaving his children in a foundling hospital, quarreling with Diderot and Hume, and writing in various forms, operatic and novelistic.

Written while Rousseau was only 18, this play centers on a love story between Narcisse and Angelique, whose marriage plans are interrupted by Narcisse’s love for a portrait of a woman, which is actually an image of himself.

The portrait is portrayed by Carolyn Tunney, who wears a wig as large as ram’s horns and a costume that resembles a large corset. In the show, unicycles are brought (but not ridden) on stage, a symbol of people trapped in solitary self-love, unable to travel on the two axles. A secondary love story, between Lucinda and Leander, hovers in the background.

The ending is made as insincere and implausible as possible, so that the play appears to show that narcissism is not overcome. (But this column won’t give away the details of that ending. The reader can experience it himself, if the play has a run at La MaMA, as one actor said it might.)

The play was directed by Ms. Tunney’s sister-in-law, Anne Deneys-Tunney, a Lincoln Center Directors Lab member. Mrs. Deneys-Tunney’s acting company, Eyeball Planet, collaborated with her musician husband Stephen Tunney (also known as “Dogbowl”) in putting on this avantgarde production.

Ms. Deneys-Tunney’s company uses improvised movement aiming at “doing, or rather undoing theater through music and dance, as the constraints and conventions of theater are historically overcome and reappear there only to be jumped over.” As one actor described it to The New York Sun, the approach “de-psychologizes the characters,” allowing the body to express the sound of the words. “The body is a vehicle and the voice is like an automaton,” he said. The actors often moved as though they were unassisted marionettes.

The play coincided with an international conference celebrating the 250th anniversary of Rousseau’s “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” which explored, among other things, the difference between self-love and proper love.

There were points of connection between the play and conference: As New School University philosophy professor Simon Critchley explained, “For Rousseau, the source of inequality is the desire for distinction, and that desire for distinction is narcissism.” Mr. Critchley was co-organizer of the conference with Ms. Deneys-Tunney, and was “philosopher/public relations” adviser to the play. His next book is about poetry, particularly Wallace Stevens.

On the night of the conference, attendees at the packed theater included philosopher Pierre Hartmann of the University of Strasbourg; New School philosophy professor Bernard Flynn, who lectures on political thinkers such as Hobbes; and Hunter College professor Helena Rosenblatt, who is researching political philosopher Benjamin Constant. At the full house Saturday night was also CUNY Graduate Center professor Marshall Berman, best-known as the author of “All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity” (Penguin).

Many of the actors are enrolled at New York University. Michael Ritchie (“Narcisse”) is a graduate student in literature; Madeleine Pramik (“Martha”) studies French literature and linguistics. Mary Kuhns (“Lucinda”) studies French and archaeological anthropology.

At a reception on Friday evening following the show, the highbrow cast and crew gathered for food and drinks in the lobby. Benjamin Binstock (“Leander”) teaches Baroque art history at Queens College and has a forthcoming book, “Vermeer’s Family Secrets: Biography, Art History, and the Unknown Apprentice” (Routlege). Marisa Stefatos (“Angelica”) teaches a course on Globalization and Representation of Cultural Identity at New York University.

The show’s cameraman, John Pemberton, is a Columbia University anthropologist who has worked in Java with gamelan musicians, shadow puppeteers, and spirit mediums. During the show, his hand-held camera put the self-regarding character Narcisse on a large screen, in a kind of reflection upon reflection.

This critic says, “I self-loved it!”

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LOOK WHAT’S COOKING

Last week at the historic James Beard House in Greenwich Village, over a gourmet breakfast of scrambled eggs and truffles nestled in a puff pastry boat, Joe Crea, chairman of the James Beard Foundation Awards Board of Governors and food and restaurants editor for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, named 39 cookbook nominees in 13 categories.

Finalists for the awards, now in their 15th year, will gather for the awards at a May dinner at the New York Marriott Marquis, with an expected attendance of 1,600 food and beverage industry leaders. More than 600 food and beverage professionals vote on the nominees and winners. ABC’s “Good Morning America” co-host Charles Gibson will be master of ceremonies for the awards, and Jacques Pepin, author of 22 cookbooks and Dean of Special Programs at the French Culinary Institute of New York, will receive a lifetime achievement award. Mr. Pepin was a close friend of Julia Child, to whom the evening’s event will pay tribute.

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DANCE FEVER

At the Martha Graham Company’s opening night at City Center, Donald Trump stayed through the final curtain, escorting his new wife, Melania Knauss, who had been recruited by Andre Leon Talley to chair the event and the socialite-studded after party at Tavern on the Green. After his successful guest stint in last year’s dance, “The Owl and the Pussycat,” Mr. Talley was taking a rest. “Every other year,” he promised, “every other year.”

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SEVENTH-GENERATION

George Jochnowitz, a writer who has researched such prosaic subjects as the Borough Park accent, headed Friday to his music lesson with Cuban-born pianist, German Diez. Mr. Jochnowitz pointed out the distinguished line of musicians Mr. Diez is part of. He studied with Claudio Arrau, who studied with Martin Krause, who studied with Franz Liszt, who studied with Carl Czerny, who studied with Ludwig van Beethoven.

The genealogy of pedagogy is important to understanding interpretation in the pianist world. As a Sun colleague pointed out, “interpretation doesn’t fall from the sky as if a deus ex machina”; rather, it is passed along from teacher to student.