(Photo: Kirsten O’Regan)
We didn’t spot Lena Dunham when Girls filmed at Café Mogador in Williamsburg this morning — though, as you can (barely) see above, we did spot Zosia Mamet wearing a cute blue-and-white printed dress and Ugg boots, her hair newly shorn into a bob.
But if it’s Lena you want, then Lena (or at least, actresses playing Lena) you shall get at the next installment of Too Many Lenas. The Carroll Simmons collective (named for Lena’s parents, Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham) will be spreading the Lena love at the upcoming Ice Factory Fest with Too Many Lenas 3: Let them Eat Cake.
Featuring six Lenas enclosed in a small space, neurotically going about their business, this installment takes the same basic premise as the the first one. But you can expect a bit more comical absurdity, fatalism and pathos.
Cast of Too Many Lenas 3: Let Them Eat Cake.
“The tone of the piece has shifted from a jubilant coming-of-age story, to something a little darker,” says co-director and performer Jaime Wright, who used to revere Dunham as a trailblazer but has recently come to believe that her idol is less revolutionary than she initially thought. “She’s more Nora Ephron 2.0. Not that Nora Ephron isn’t amazing! But it just means Lena Dunham isn’t so much doing her own thing.”
Director David Bernstein agrees on the gradual transformation of the Lena phenomenon. “The credibility of portraying a failure slips as your empire expands,” he says, with a laugh.
Watch a clip from the first Too Many Lenas
Although one of the collective recently met Lena, and another worked on the Girls set for two days, the real Dunham shows little evidence of knowing Too Many Lenas exists. “We feel like she’s willingly ignoring us,” confides Wright. “We really just want her to tweet about us.”
Bernstein says he would love Lena to attend a performance. “Having said that,” he reflects, “she probably would have liked the last one better.” Given that much of instalment three is overshadowed by predictions of career demise, he may well be right.
“Too Many Lenas 3: Let Them Eat Cake” will be showing during Ice Factory Festival 2014 from July 2 to 5, at the New Ohio Theatre, 154 Christopher Street, #1E