Superfluities Redux
On culture and theatre, by George Hunka
A new journal for theatre minima and organum posts exclusively can now be found here.
Thursday, 31 January 2008
A cruel family portrait.
(See entry for 5 February.)
After the cold winds and festival madness of January, the colder winds of February. One would have hoped for a bit of a breather, but alas, theatre struggles on. So do I, despite a lingering bout of discouragement at the thought of revising a new play for some elusive and vague possibility of future production -- what insane woman would want to perform the damn thing? leaving aside the question of who the hell would want to read, produce or see it -- and the continuing wisdom of trailing this blog farther than it's worth, along with the usual dour grumbling. Dare one call it "a disaffected postmodernist ennui"? Well, tough. And screw you, too.
I know, I hear you -- I should get out more. There's more than enough to keep me out of the house, tightly wrapped. So, a highly selective, prejudiced look at the theatrical week ahead, along with other items of interest:
Saturday, 2 February/Sunday, 3 February: Although you've missed the first few nights of the hotINK International Festival of Play Readings at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway, no reason to miss the last few nights. Scheduled for 2-3 February are new plays from US dramatist Mac Wellman (1965 UU), Australian playwright Tee O'Neill (Best Possible World) and France's Bernard Da Costa (Boomerang), this last featuring Kathleen Chalfant. Schedule varies; full listing and details here.
Monday, 4 February: Just see Deep Trance Behavior in Potatoland and can't get enough R. Foreman? Hie yourself down to The Housing Works at 126 Crosby Street at 7.00pm tonight and join Foreman as he discusses "art, behavior and his latest collection of work [from TCG Books], Bad Boy Nietzsche! And Other Plays" with Eric Bogosian. He'll sign your book for you too, apparently; a reception follows. Details (only a few, but details nonetheless) at The Housing Works' Web site. When you get home, put the book down next to your computer; you may want it nearby as you read Nicholas Birns' excellent essay on Foreman's recent work, "Mediated Understandings," in Hyperion -- an Internet magazine quickly becoming a required visit for anyone interested in the condition of contemporary American and world theatre.
Tuesday, 5 February: Artaud's sole complete stageplay, his adaptation of Shelley's The Cenci, opens in a brand new translation by Richard Sieburth and produced by John Jahnke's Hotel Savant theatre company at the Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster Street. Whether this example of the Theatre of Cruelty will be able to compare with today's New York/Super Tuesday Presidential primary is anybody's guess. But it's no ordinary revival, this: "It is the Hotel Savant's intent to impugn The Cenci, an infamous but neglected work, with an aptly modern theatrical language. Jahnke and his company will portray the fall of the house of Cenci -- powerful and doomed, victimized and victimizing -- inspired by what it most resembles today: a tabloid comic tragedy. Specters of the past, the Cencis also prefigure our modern day obsession with private lives lived publicly and sensationally, knowingly pursued yet simultaneously trapped by the media attention they invite." Hmm ... considering Bill and Hillary's history, maybe there's more to the comparison than I thought. Jahnke's last New York show was the 2006 world premiere of Susan Sontag's play A Parsifal, and this production features work by downtown stalwarts Peter Ksander (designer) and Tony Torn, Lauren Blumenfeld and Todd d'Amour (performers). Act now; it runs only through 23 February. Tickets and information through Theatermania.
Wednesday, 6 February: At 6.00pm tonight, join Romeo Castellucci, Chiara Guidi and Claudia Castellucci, the principals of the Italian theatre group Societas Raffaello Sanzio, for an open discussion about their company's work at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at CUNY's Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue. The group is perhaps best known for its epic work Tragedia Endogonidia (a YouTube clip of the haunting production is available here). The name of the company is a reference to Raffaello, "the Renaissance painter (Raphael) who combines the perfection of the shape with the inquietude of a world which is quickly losing its reference points; therefore he is the witness to a dramatic tension and a dynamics of technique that are trends always present in the company's works." It's free; details from the MESTC Web site here. And if that's not enough for you ...
Thursday, 7 February: ... the group's latest work, Hey girl!, opens tonight at Montclair State University's Peak Performances series at 7.30pm. "In this new piece, Romeo Castellucci examines the language of gesture. The genesis for this play came to him while stopped at an intersection; he saw a group of girls waiting for their buses," the promotional material says. "In Castellucci’s masterful hands, nuance is everything: a nod, a finger pointed, a raised eyebrow, or a moment of recognition. Hey girl! examines the relationship of what is going on in the mind of our everyday girl. What is her destiny? Who summons her to appear?" Intriguing questions. Hey girl!'s limited run closes on 10 February. To get more information, visit the page for the show at the Peak Performances Web site.
Friday, 8 February: Israeli choreographer Deganit Shemy arrives at PS122 for Iodine [YOD], her new dance piece for five women who "move between control and abandon, between being victims and victimizers, as well as between vision and blindness, dependency and individuation. They long to be a part of something larger but also fear losing their identity in the throng." Don't we all? The show runs 5-9 February at 8.00pm, Sunday 10 February at 6.00pm. More information at PS122's Web page for the show.
Posted at 7.49 pm in /Openings
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