Passionate and Convulsive

One of the great things about New York City is the vibrant and dynamic theater world of Off-Off Broadway. But one of the truly exciting wonders of this terrific metropolis is the untidy, eccentric and often hermetic universe of Off-Off-Off Broadway. It was in one of those far-flung marginal venues that I recently witnessed something that even the visionary inventor of The Theater of Cruelty, Antonin Artaud would not have anticipated.

at the theater

Winter Concert by the Estonian-American feminist public intellectual, Orestia Shestov is an inspired work of art. Loosely configured around the Völuspá or The Prophecy of Völva, Shestov’s new work is a tragic, voluptuary, sado-sexual urban legend that follows the three protagonists, Edo, Brigitte and Bruce, through a purgatorial cesspool of dissipation, redemption and ultimately, hopeless recidivism.

The piece is graphic and brash and clearly not for the faint of heart. I wouldn’t recommend taking your parents or using it as a venue for a first date. It challenges all convention and comically transgresses all norms of Judeo-Christian morality.

The sets, by the young New York painter, Linnart Jem, are exquisite precisely for their complete lack of subtlety. The music, which is live, is provided by the Brooklyn based punk/polka band Pierś.

There are two performances a week: Wednesdays at 8 PM and Saturdays at 7. The theater, a converted matzo factory is called The Elder von Musil Center for the Performing Arts and is located on Harrison Aveneue in University Heights.

It closes at the end of the month and I highly, highly recommend it.