French theater director Jean-Baptiste Sastre rehearses Haitian-American chorus for New York premiere of PHÈDRE LES OISEAUX (photo © Ayodele Casel)
PHÈDRE LES OISEAUX (PHAEDRA THE BIRDS)
Baryshnikov Arts Center, Howard Gilman Performance Space
450 West 37th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
May 21-24, 28-29, $20, 7:30
866-811-4111
www.bacnyc.org
French director Jean-Baptiste Sastre describes his production of Phèdre les oiseaux (Phaedra the birds), which makes its New York premiere May 21-29 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, as “a poem,” while Palestinian star Hiam Abbass calls it a “moment of pleasure, and of poetry, and of theater.” The seventy-five-minute show, which relates the Greek myth of Phaedra, a tale of forbidden love, betrayal, rejection, and revenge, will be performed by Abbass (Paradise Now, Lemon Tree) as Phaedra and American-Ugandan actor Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Heroes, Treme) as Hippolytus, joined by approximately thirty members of the Brooklyn-based organization Haïtian-Americans in Action serving as the chorus. The text is by Frédéric Boyer, with English translation by Cole Swensen and dramaturgy by Ellen Hammer. The international project, which features a local chorus at every stop on its tour, has been reconfigured for the Howard Gilman Performance Space, will be told in English, French, and Haitian Creole at BAC. [ed. note: This event has now been canceled. We apologize for any inconvenience.]