Superfluities Redux
On culture and theatre, by George Hunka
A new journal for theatre minima and organum posts exclusively can now be found here.
Friday, 30 November 2007
A highly selective, prejudiced look at the theatrical week ahead, along with other items of interest:
Saturday, 1 December: Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me fame produced What Would Jesus Buy?, a documentary about the performance artist Bill "Reverend Billy" Talen and his Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir. It's currently running at the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street; tickets and information here. Give post-capitalism a smack in the face and drop by.
Sunday, 2 December: So long as you're in the mood for spending money (or maybe not, considering what you've seen the night before), cruise on over to the Web site for Democracy in America, the latest show from the Foundry Theater. There, you can purchase your way into art: items for sale in Annie Dorsen's new show include a product placement (price varies), a line of dialogue (only $15.00, a real steal) or, for more high-end buyers, an interpretation of the show for $2,500.00 ("Your interpretation will be featured in the program and included in our press packets. We will discuss your interpretation in all forums in which it is appropriate to do so"). There's lots more; information here. C'mon; it's Christmas!
Monday, 3 December: Rain and snow Monday, with a low expected to dip below freezing. Since most theatres are dark, curl up with veteran Foreman actress Juliana Francis Kelly's rehearsal notes from Deep Trance Behavior in Potatoland. If you do manage to make it out, however, take a subway uptown to the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where the Pier Paolo Pasolini: Poet of Ashes festival continues with a rare screening of his 1975 Salò, an adaptation of de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom. The screening starts at 8.00pm at the Walter Reade Theatre, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza.
Tuesday, 4 December: Join actress/comedienne Liz Dahmen of Ex-Antwone fame for The Lesbian Overtones Holiday Show and Puppy Love, a double holiday bill at The Green Room at 45 Bleecker Street. Audiences are promised "torch songs, pole-dancing and Dad-drag." Again: c'mon, it's Christmas! More information here; the show runs on Tuesdays through 18 December. (For more on contemporary variety and burlesque shows, by the way, see Claire Nally's "There's more to burlesque than meets the eye" at today's Guardian (UK) blog.)
Wednesday, 5 December: The Elephant Brigade's new production of Man is Man begins performances at HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue. This "real-time theatre" production marries contemporary technology to the Brechtian Verfremdungseffekt to create a Brecht for the new century.
Thursday, 6 December: Another unique event at the Japan Society when John Jesurun, just off Philoktetes at Soho Rep, directs a restaging of Harry Partch's large-scale composition Delusion of the Fury. The first act of Partch's music-theatre piece is based on two Japanese Noh plays, the second on an Ethiopian folk tale; both feature the unique, custom-made instruments for which Partch is famous. Runs through Friday night at the Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street; more details here.
Friday, 7 December: The first major Beckett staging of the season: JoAnne Akalaitis' production of four short Beckett plays, featuring Mikhail Baryshnikov and a new score by Philip Glass, previews at the New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street.
Posted at 5.13 pm in /Openings
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