Latest news with #Brechtian
Time Out
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
The Anarchy (1138-53)
Enter the KXT on Broadway theatre, which has been transformed into a brutal and deadly jousting arena. Choose a side, and sit on that side. DO NOT CROSS THE STAGE! THERE ARE SPIKES AND MIRRORS THAT YOU CANNOT STEP ON! Now wait. You're here for The Anarchy (1138-53). You will be overwhelmed for 2 hours and 15 minutes. You might like it, or you might hate it, or you might choose to leave. None of that's up to me, but once you've seen it, you might like to read something to help you make sense of it. Here is my attempt to write something about it for that purpose, with the caveat that all criticism is somewhat subjective, and nothing is a substitute for going outside and buying a ticket and taking a risk on a brilliant (or awful!) experience. Presented by UK/Australian experimental theatre company Doppelgangster in association with bAKEHOUSE THEATRE COMPANY, and performed by sibling duo Kerith and Tobias Manderson-Galvin, The Anarchy (1138-53) is Part 1 of an odyssey set in the fictional medieval town of Cross Roads. Doppelgangster boasts that their previous works have generated walkouts, physical fights and cancellations, along with cult followings and critical acclaim – and this new presentation proudly channels that rebellious spirit. The Anarchy (1138-53) is something like a DIY punk/garage gig, a role playing game, a Brechtian nightmare, a couple of clowns finding meaning, or a cabaret. But it's really none of those things either. It repeats and loops in on itself, with nothing certain but a number of grisly ways to die, to perform, to attempt to communicate. For the most part, it is two people yelling into the void and hoping something might happen. precisely orchestrated to never let you rest... it's strangely meditative On opening night, a number of things did happen. We, the audience, stood up, dutifully followed directions, one person walked out, and we stared at each other, the performers and the mirrors lining the stage and walls in confusion (or awe, or something else entirely). Herein lies the postmodern genius of The Anarchy. This is not a narrative or something you can sit back and place judgement upon from afar – you are embroiled in it, whatever it is and whatever you think about it. For me, it is a constant act of construction, destruction and reconstruction: Tobias says something, you listen, then Tobias starts throwing up. Kerith quickly takes over with another barrage of information. Then, there is an extended stretch of dialogue for you to wade through. While it may seem crass or overly simplistic, it is precisely orchestrated to never let you rest. It's an endurance test of sorts, for you and the performers, and it's strangely meditative. This unrelenting effort is heightened by bold production design, with textile art by Chelsea Hickman, sound composition by Pat Fielding, and lighting design by the Manderson-Galvins. Lights go from dank darkness to blinding brightness at varying intervals, obscuring and revealing a mass of seemingly-irrelevant props on either side of the stage. Tapestries on either side of the mirrored walls declare various slogans. Slow, electric bass is intercut with noisy electric guitars. Something like a bird chirps in the background. It's noise, noise and more noise. It all builds into a symphony of horrors. Nothing I've ever experienced has even come close to preparing me for what it is to be alive right now, surrounded by constant noise and distractions from the terrors of late stage capitalism and our rapidly devolving society. If you're game, The Anarchy is the sort of art that might just help you process the horrors. Wherever we turn, there is violence: genocide, homelessness, growth, profit, whatever you want to call it. We can choose to ignore it. That is our privilege. Or, we can choose to find our way through, together. Because nothing changes without us. Buy a ticket, and then buy another, and sit through it all again. See what happens if you say something back. There might be something in it. In any case, you mustn't forget to sing.
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The Independent
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
An absurdist fable for fascism, The Almeida's production of Rhinoceros is a rare beast on London's stages
Eugène Ionesco's 1959 absurdist play Rhinoceros has long been seen as an allegory for the rise of fascism, showing how people are gaslighted, coerced and coddled into putting up with a bizarre new status quo. So it would be easy for Omar Elerian's adaptation to play up the obvious Trump parallels. Refreshingly, he hasn't, instead crafting something that deliberately floats above ugly political realities, buoyant as a child's balloon. Here, Sopé Dìrísù (Gangs of London) plays Bérenger, a scruffy everyman surrounded by conformist bores in white coats. Not least his sanctimonious friend Jean, given a winning smugness by Joshua McGuire (Cheaters), who tells him off for boozing and not wearing a tie. When a rhino rampages through his small French town, Bérenger is horrified, but his friends and colleagues soon bury themselves in dry philosophical debates that accustom them to a new pachyderm-centric way of life. Elerian takes a Brechtian approach to the play, reading out Ionesco's elaborate stage directions and comically misinterpreting them for the audience's amusement (a cat is played by a giant watermelon). Everything is artificial here, from the live foley sound effects to the strange swirly shapes into which the actors' hair has been teased. This deliberate non-naturalism makes it hard to settle into the world of the play, especially since Elerian has chucked so many different jarring elements into the mix here. Some early scenes inflate like over-proved dough, with their long preambles and verbal repartee that's too literally translated to achieve full hilarity. But as the leathery-skinned beasts multiply, this production's power grows, helped by wonderfully imaginative bits of physical theatre. McGuire's transformation into a silver-skinned monster is a marvel, his shifting body capturing how attempts to empathise with extreme positions can open you up to losing your own values. Hayley Carmichael quakes like a freshly-birthed faun after her encounter with a rhino, but soon her terror matures into a surreal kind of love. And Paul Hunter acts as an unofficial emcee and anchor in this strange world, gently inculcating the audience into its rules. Dìrísù initially feels a bit lost here, giving a straightforwardly truthful performance among all these heightened grotesques. But there's a mounting power in that as the final scenes draw in and chaos reigns, thundering hooves crushing everything he used to know. A production like this is a rare beast on London's stages – with its gleeful non-naturalism, witty physical theatre and tooting kazoos – and it deserves to be appreciated.
Los Angeles Times
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Ron Sossi, founder of the provocative Odyssey Theatre in L.A., dies
Ron Sossi, the founder of L.A.'s experimental and boundary-pushing Odyssey Theatre, has died. He was 85. Sossi died of congestive heart failure March 19 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, an Odyssey spokeswoman said. Sossi, a legend in the local theater community, was known for challenging conventional thinking and creating a space where new ideas would be greeted with open arms. 'His theater defied convention — producing work that many of L.A.'s larger stages might shy away from, ignoring financial models in favor of risk, passion and artistic necessity,' said Bart DeLorenzo, director of more than a dozen plays at the Odyssey, who noted the theater's early history of premiering important work. 'His Brechtian sensibility, his belief in theater as a political force to shape a culture, and his embrace of direct theatricality has left an indelible mark on a whole generation of theater-makers and audiences.' Sossi was born Nov. 22, 1939, in Detroit. He attended the University of Michigan and graduated with a degree in writing for theater and television. He moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA's School of Theater, Film, and Television, where he won the Samuel Goldwyn award for screenwriting. As an MFA student, he supported himself as a wedding photographer and water filter salesman. He also worked as an actor and singer. While in school, he traveled to Korea, Japan and Guam for a college production of 'Carousel.' On that trip he met Bonnie Franklin, and the classmates and co-stars were later married from 1967 to 1970. After graduating from UCLA, Sossi got a job as a program executive at ABC overseeing shows such as 'Bewitched,' 'The Flying Nun' and 'Love, American Style.' When working in television lost its shine, Sossi redirected his artistic efforts to the theater. In 1969 he opened the Odyssey on an unglamorous part of Hollywood Boulevard, next to a porn theater. Sossi started to push his creative limits with its first productions — 'A Man's a Man' by Bertolt Brecht, 'The Serpent' by Jean-Claude van Itallie, 'The Threepenny Opera' by Brecht and Kurt Weill and 'The Bacchae' by Euripides. Presenting a mix of new work and reimagined classics, the Odyssey found its niche with L.A.'s theatergoers. This creative hub soon became known for welcoming the avant-garde of the past and present. 'I think my approach is a little different than most people's,' Sossi told The Times in 1989, 'in that I'm attracted to metaphysical ideas and philosophical ideas, but not to a lot of sociological and political stuff.' He recalled various dinner gatherings with other directors. 'There was a strong feeling that you were only doing serious theater if you were doing political theater — and everything else was escapist entertainment,' Sossi said. 'I remember saying, 'Wait a minute! What about theater that deals with the great philosophical questions — you know, the meaning of it all. What's it all about? What's life? What's death? What's time? What's space?' They kind of pooh-poohed me, like, 'Come on, grow up.'' In 1973, Sossi moved the Odyssey to a 99-seat theater in West L.A. Over several years he developed the venue into a three-theater complex. In 1989 the building was sold and Sossi relocated the Odyssey to its current location on Sepulveda Boulevard. That complex officially opened in 1990 with Brian Friel's 'Faith Healer.' In recent years, as the Odyssey welcomed the work of Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett, María Irene Fornés and Gertrude Stein, Sossi connected a new generation of theater-makers with their audacious and influential forebears. For more than 50 years, Sossi's admirers said, the Odyssey artistic director provided a platform for those committed to reimagining what a theater could be, no matter the prestige or pedigree of an artist. Instead of a service or ceremony, Sossi's wish was 'that the ongoing vibrancy of the theater he built would serve as his only memorial,' according to a press release. Sossi is survived by his wife, Séverine Larue, and his sister, Nancy Foley. L.A. Times theater critic Charles McNulty contributed to this report.
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
New York Theater to See Now: Isabelle Huppert, ‘Urinetown' and More
Let some brilliant theater artists — like Jeff Hiller in 'Urinetown,' Susannah Flood in 'Liberation' and Tonya Pinkins in 'My First Ex-Husband' — tell you a story this month. Here are 10 shows to tempt you, Off Broadway and beyond. If you are allergic to bathroom humor, Greg Kotis and Mark Hollmann's Tony Award-winning musical satire probably is not for you. Winkingly Brechtian, with echoes of Ibsen's 'An Enemy of the People,' it's set in a dystopia where private toilets are illegal and public facilities charge for use — a situation ripe for rebellion. Directed by Teddy Bergman ('KPOP') for New York City Center Encores!, this brief revival stars Jordan Fisher, Rainn Wilson, Keala Settle and Jeff Hiller. (Through Feb. 16, New York City Center) A marionette made of ice plays a wandering, melting, disappearing Oedipus accompanied by his daughter Antigone in this puppet piece by the French company Théâtre de l'Entrouvert, which uses bits of text from Henry Bauchau's novel 'Oedipus on the Road.' Conceived and directed by Élise Vigneron, whose interest in ephemerality has led her to work repeatedly with ice puppets, it is presented with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival as part of Basil Twist's Dream Music Puppetry program. Recommended for ages 11 and up. (Through March 2, Here) The New York Times once described Charlie Chaplin's longtime assistant, Toraichi Kono, as 'the keeper of his privacy.' An immigrant from Japan who made fleeting appearances in Chaplin films, this 'combination valet, bodyguard and chauffeur' is the title character of Philip W. Chung's historically based play, which follows Kono's fortunes as he is suspected of espionage and imprisoned in an internment camp during World War II. Jeff Liu directs the world premiere for Pan Asian Repertory Theater. (Through March 9, A.R.T./New York Theaters) This new two-hander by the Obie Award winner Samuel D. Hunter ('A Case for the Existence of God') stars Brian J. Smith and Paul Sparks as estranged brothers with different fathers, discrete wounds and far-flung lives — one in their Idaho hometown, the other in a city thousands of miles away. But they have a shared filial task: caring for their sick mother. Jack Serio ('Uncle Vanya') directs for Signature Theater. (Through March 16, Signature Theater) The Obie-winning playwright Rajiv Joseph ('Guards at the Taj') spent three years serving in the Peace Corps in Senegal. That country is the setting for his new thriller, about a Peace Corps volunteer who finds himself under the protection of a State Department operative as the year 2000 approaches. May Adrales directs this world premiere for Manhattan Theater Club. (Through March 23, New York City Center) The New Group can be relied on to sprinkle its shows with stars, and so it goes with this revival of Sam Shepard's 1977 Obie winner, a poetic tragicomedy about a family living the flip side of the American dream. Directed by Scott Elliott, it's led by Calista Flockhart as Ella Tate and Christian Slater as her drunken, combustible husband, Weston. Cooper Hoffman, whose father starred in Shepard's 'True West' on Broadway, plays their teenage son. (Through March 30, Pershing Square Signature Center) Bess Wohl, who so deftly traced an older woman's feminist awakening in her Broadway comedy, 'Grand Horizons,' here tells a mother-daughter story, stretching from Ohio in 1970, during the era of women's consciousness-raising groups, to a half-century later. In a world-premiere production for Roundabout Theater Company, Whitney White directs a cast that includes Betsy Aidem, Susannah Flood and Kristolyn Lloyd. The show contains nudity, and audience members are required to place their phones in locked pouches during the performance. (Through March 30, Laura Pels Theater) Rotating casts filled with boldface names are the lure for this collection of comic relationship stories written by Joy Behar, who performs them alongside Susie Essman, Tovah Feldshuh and Adrienne C. Moore through Feb. 23. Judy Gold, Susan Lucci, Tonya Pinkins and Cathy Moriarty take over from Feb. 26 to March 23, followed by Veanne Cox, Jackie Hoffman and Andrea Navedo, March 26 through April 20. Gina Gershon joins them from April 2 to April 20. (Manhattan Movement & Arts Center) The Irish dramatist Enda Walsh, a St. Ann's Warehouse favorite last seen there with his shattering 'Medicine' in 2021, returns with this fractured memory play, woven through with original music by Anna Mullarkey. Directed by Walsh for the Abbey Theater in Dublin, it stars Kate Gilmore in an acclaimed performance. Walsh, a Tony winner for the musical 'Once,' is drawn to explorations of abuse and its damages. This is one of those. (Feb. 15 through March 2, St. Ann's Warehouse) The letters of Mary Stuart — the 16th-century Scottish queen whose own cousin Elizabeth I of England ordered her beheaded — form the basis of this 90-minute monologue about a life full of royal plots and scheming, spoken on the eve of her execution. Starring Isabelle Huppert and directed by the avant-gardist Robert Wilson, this highly stylized production is the third time Huppert has starred in a show of Wilson's. Written by Darryl Pinckney, with a classical score by Ludovico Einaudi, it is performed in French with English supertitles. (Feb. 27 through March 2, NYU Skirball)
South China Morning Post
06-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Who is Amanda Palmer, wife of author Neil Gaiman, who faces rape charges?
Meet Amanda Palmer, disgraced writer Neil Gaiman's ex-wife. Photo: TNS Fame and celebrity English author Neil Gaiman has been accused of sexual assault by eight different women, per the BBC. The accusations have led to publishers such as HarperCollins saying they will not release his books in future, while a planned Disney adaptation of The Graveyard Book has been put on hold. The creator of The Sandman now faces a civil lawsuit for sexual assault brought by Scarlett Pavlovich, one of his alleged victims, who worked as a nanny for him and his ex-wife Amanda Palmer. Author Neil Gaiman. Photo: AP Per The Guardian, the lawsuit also accuses Gaiman of rape and coercion, and alleges that the former couple breached human trafficking laws. Palmer is also being sued for 'procuring and presenting' Pavlovich to Gaiman after she met her in Auckland when she was living unhoused on a beach at 22 years old. Gaiman has denied all the allegations. The plaintiff also claims the author's wife had warned her that more than a dozen women had told her Gaiman had sexually assaulted them. So who is Amanda Palmer, who is 'profoundly disturbed' by the allegations against her ex-husband, per The Guardian? She's a musician Amanda Palmer is a musician. Photo: @amandapalmer/Facebook According to Newsweek, Palmer is a musician, best known as the lead singer and songwriter of The Dresden Dolls. She describes the duo's musical style as 'Brechtian punk cabaret', per Genius. Palmer also invented the fictional musical duo Evelyn Evelyn alongside experimental folk musician Jason Webley, where the two play conjoined twin sisters. According to Palmer's blog, one of the songs on the duo's self-titled album, 'My Space', features vocals from Gaiman, as well as 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Frances Bean Cobain and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way. She is problematic too Amanda Palmer's work has been problematic. Photo: @amandapalmer/Facebook Palmer and Webley's Evelyn Evelyn has faced much backlash for being ableist. When asked about the mythical twins in an interview with Flavorwire, Palmer compared the state of being conjoined to a metaphor. 'You can definitely see the deep metaphors in being permanently attached to another person for better or for worse,' she said.
