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A SURVIVOR’S ODYSSEY: THE JOURNEY OF PENELOPE AND CIRCE

A SURVIVOR’S ODYSSEY: THE JOURNEY OF PENELOPE AND CIRCE
White Snake Projects
September 24, 26, 28, free with advance RSVP (suggested donation $25-$150), 7:30
www.whitesnakeprojects.org

Boston-based activist opera company White Snake Projects concludes its inspiring, barrier-breaking livestreamed opera trilogy with A Survivor’s Odyssey: The Journey of Penelope and Circe, which opened on September 24 and has two more presentations, on September 26 and 28 at 7:30. In October 2020, WSP debuted Alice in the Pandemic, which took place in a video-game-like world as Alice searches for her mother while a hospital fills up with Covid-19 patients. In May 2021, WSP premiered Death by Life: A Digital Opera in One Act, following the stories of several incarcerated individuals facing racism and injustice, with music by five Black composers and accompanied by an online art exhibition.

WSP reinterprets Greek mythology and Homer’s Odyssey in A Survivor’s Odyssey: The Journey of Penelope and Circe, reimagining Odysseus’s (James Demler) long-suffering wife, Penelope (Amanda Crider), and the witch-goddess Circe (Teresa Castillo) as survivors of sexual and physical abuse. The show begins with the two women, along with two men, Mark and Jan (Patrick Dailey and James Demler), in an online therapy group helping one another. “Is he still hurting you?” Circe asks Penelope, who replies, “It’s hard being locked down with him.”

Penelope has been weaving and unraveling a shroud to turn away suitors as she waits for her husband to return to her after twenty years away fighting the Trojan War; she is also hoping for her son, Telemachus (Dailey), to come home, having been banished by his father, who believes a prophecy that says he will be killed by his male child. Meanwhile, Circe is terrified of telling her sixteen-year-old boy, Telegonus (Dailey), her “dirty little secret” about his birth. When Odysseus ultimately returns, battle lines are drawn and blood flows.

White Snake Projects incorporates magic and cutting-edge technology in livestreamed opera

Made with the support of the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, Casa Myrna, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, the Network/La Red, a Call to Men, a Window Between Worlds, and Jane Doe Inc., A Survivor’s Odyssey is a riveting tale reinvented for the twenty-first century and particularly during the coronavirus crisis, responding to the rise in intimate partner violence (IPV) that has been occurring around the globe during the pandemic lockdown. “I’ve been thinking about why IPV is endemic in the world. I keep coming back to the male gaze, the power of the patriarchy to shape every country’s and every culture’s perceptions of who and what women are,” librettist and WSP founder Cerise Lim Jacobs writes in a program note. “Women, myself included, have been imprisoned by the male gaze. Our aspirations, hopes, and dreams have been limited by this gaze; our fears, insecurities, and nightmares magnified by this gaze. The male gaze has defined our world’s ideas, imaginations, cultures, and subconscious dreams of womanhood. . . . This has to stop.” The women characters ultimately take back the power in A Survivor’s Odyssey, refusing to allow the patriarchy to run roughshod over them anymore. Composer Mary Prescott’s lovely score was inspired by the idea of weaving, long considered women’s work, to create a tapestry of sounds, linking the past and the present and denouncing misogyny.

Despite their far-flung locations, soprano Castillo (in New York City), countertenor Dailey (in Nashville), mezzo-soprano Crider (in Miami), and bass-baritone Demler (outside Boston) pull off the near-impossible, appearing to be performing together in front of such backdrops as Helios’s lush garden, Circe’s mountain home on Aeaea, and the courtyard of Odysseus and Penelope’s grand estate in Ancient Greece when actually in front of green screens in their bedrooms and basements. Elena Araoz, who has never met her cast in person, directs the piece virtually, with music direction by Tian Hui Ng featuring the Victory Players, with Nathan Ben-Yehuda on piano, Clare Monfredo on cello, Giovanni Perez on flute, and Elly Toyoda on violin and viola. The costumes are by Christopher Vergara, with playful 3D animation of the pigs by Lesley University senior Paola Almonte. An online exhibition also accompanies this production, “To Live: Transcending Trauma Through Art,” with works by Carole Alden, Taecia Prows, Cedar Annenkovna, Zhi Kai Vanderford, Ruby Rumié, Annie Chang, Catriona Baker, and Tashi Farmilo-Marouf.

The performers have earpieces in which they can hear a recording of the others singing; the live vocals are sent to electronic music designer and audio engineer Jon Robertson (in Kansas City) and the video to projections designer and broadcast engineer Paul Deziel (in New York), who mix the sound and images using the Unreal Engine video game platform by Curvin Huber and their proprietary audio plugin Tutti Remote to instantaneously sync it all. It’s a massive undertaking, and there were a few glitches and delays, but don’t go anywhere if that happens; the live chat fills the gaps and offers more information about the cast, crew, and technology. After the show’s over, stick around for a live discussion and Q&A that answers just about every question you can think of.

One of the main themes of A Survivor’s Odyssey is the lost connection that the pandemic has wrought, between friends, family members, and performers and audience. At one point during a Zoom therapy meeting, the participants reach out their hands, proclaiming, “I touch you, I hold you, I feel you.” In its remarkable trilogy of live online opera, WPS reaches out to us, immersing us in their spectacularly creative storytelling, and we feel them.

NYFF59: FREE TALKS

Apichatpong Weerasethakul will discuss his new film, Memoria,) at NYFF59 free talk

NYFF59 FREE TALKS
Film at Lincoln Center
Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater
144 West Sixty-Fifth Street between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
September 25 – October 9, free (first come, first serve one hour before program)
www.filmlinc.org

The New York Film Festival, which opens today, has just announced its slate of free talks, taking place September 25 to October 9 at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater (with one exception). Admission is first come, first served starting an hour before each event; the talks will also be recorded for later on-demand viewing on YouTube. The highlight is the inaugural Amos Vogel Lecture, honoring the centennial of the birth of the cofounder of the festival, who is also the subject of a centenary retrospective. The lecture will be given by Albert Serra, the director of previous NYFF selections The Death of Louis XIV and Liberté and who wrote the foreword for the French edition of Vogel’s seminal book, Film as a Subversive Art.

The rest of the panel discussions, in-depth conversations, and filmmaker dialogues are divided into “Deep Focus,” “Crosscuts,” and “Film Comment Live,” with such participants as Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Sofia Coppola, Mia Hansen-Løve (Bergman Island), Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World), Todd Haynes (The Velvet Underground), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Memoria, Night Colonies), Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy), and Amy Taubin. The discussion about the thirtieth anniversary of Mississippi Masala with director Mira Nair, star Sarita Choudhury, and cinematographer Ed Lachman, moderated by Jhumpa Lahiri, follows the free screening of the film in Damrosch Park, for ticket holders only. Below is the full schedule.

Jane Campion will delve into her NYFF59 centerpiece selection, The Power of the Dog, with Sofia Coppola

Saturday, September 25
Deep Focus: The Making of Mississippi Masala, with Mira Nair, Sarita Choudhury, and Ed Lachman, moderated by Jhumpa Lahiri, Damrosch Park, 9:30

Sunday, September 26
Roundtable: Cinema’s Workers, with Abby Sun, Ted Fendt, Kazembe Balagun, and Dana Kopel, moderated by Gina Telaroli, Amphitheater, 7:00

Monday, September 27
Crosscuts: Mia Hansen-Løve & Joachim Trier, Amphitheater, 7:00

Saturday, October 2
Deep Focus: Jane Campion, moderated by Sofia Coppola, Amphitheater, 4:00

Crosscuts: Silvan Zürcher & Alexandre Koberidze, Amphitheater, 7:00

Sunday, October 3
Film Comment Live: The Velvet Underground & the New York Avant-Garde, with Todd Haynes, Ed Lachman, and Amy Taubin, Amphitheater, 4:00

Deep Focus: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Amphitheater, 7:00

Tuesday, October 5
Deep Focus: Maggie Gyllenhaal & Kira Kovalenko, Amphitheater, 7:00

Thursday, October 7
Deep Focus: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Amphitheater, 6:30

Saturday, October 9
Film Comment Live: Festival Report, with Devika Girish, Clinton Krute, Molly Haskell, Bilge Ebiri, and Phoebe Chen, Amphitheater, 7:00

NYFF59 MAIN SLATE: TITANE

Agathe Rousselle makes a sizzling debut in Julia Ducournau’s Titane

TITANE (TITANIUM) (Julia Ducournau, 2021)
New York Film Festival
Sunday, September 26, Alice Tully Hall, 9:00
Monday, September 27, Alice Tully Hall, 8:45
Wednesday, September 29, Walter Reade Theater, 3:45
www.filmlinc.org

Julia Ducournau’s Titane is a dark, disturbing body horror thriller about family, fetishization, and obsession, a pulse-pounding, high-octane mash-up of David Cronenberg’s Crash, Donald Cammell’s The Demon Seed, and Mervyn LeRoy’s The Bad Seed.

Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Titane features newcomer Agathe Rousselle in a revved-up performance as Alexia, a young woman whose life changed dramatically after getting seriously hurt in a car accident when she was a little girl (Adèle Guigue), having a titanium plate put in her head, an odd scar left over her right ear. The teenage Alexia is drawn to raging fires and the cool, metallic smoothness of cars. She has become somewhat of a star at auto shows, where she dances alluringly, touching and mounting cars like they are lovers, attracting a fan base of men who would do just about anything for an autograph, a selfie, or a kiss, and is befriended by fellow dancer Justine (Garance Marillier). But she’s also prone to taking out her long, sharp hairpin and stabbing people to death.

With the cops closing in, she radically changes her appearance — just try not to look away when she purposely breaks her nose — and pretends to be Adrien, a boy who has been missing for more than ten years. Adrien’s fire-captain father, Vincent (a stoic Vincent Lindon), takes her in, overjoyed that he has his son back. Alexia stops speaking and hides her breasts and stomach from Vincent — a belly that is growing by the day, leaking oil instead of blood, as something unusual seems to be developing in her womb. Despite her PTSD and addiction, Alexia tries to have a normal life, but danger lurks around every corner.

Writer-director Ducournau burst onto the scene with her 2016 debut, the FIPRESCI Prize–winning Raw, which involved vegetarianism, blood galore, and, like Titane, main characters named Adrien, Alexia, and Justine. (In fact, Marillier has played women named Justine in these two films as well as Ducournau’s 2011 short, Junior.). Body metamorphosis is a continuing theme in Ducournau’s oeuvre, and it is at the center of Titane. At first, Alexia is a tall blond with a body to die for and rad tattoos — one on her chest proclaims, “Love is a dog from hell” — but as time goes on, she is barely recognizable, her breasts sagging, her skin breaking open, motor oil leaking out. Alexia is often seen naked as Ducournau documents her change.

Vincent London shows off his bod and his acting chops in body horror thriller Titane

Award-winning French star Lindon (Welcome, The Measure of a Man), in a role specifically created for him, gets to show off his (dad) bod as well; he worked out for a year to get into great shape to play a haunted man obsessed with his abs, shooting hormones into his bruised butt every night to help him keep up with the younger generation. Where Alexia hides her body, Vincent enjoys being bare-chested any chance he gets.

Titane won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, and it’s easy to see why. But there’s a method to its madness; Ducournau, whose parents were both doctors, is not just shocking the audience but making it look at things it usually would turn away from or think differently about, pulling back the curtain on gender and body issues and the relationship between parents and children. The fierce soundtrack by Jim Williams is bookended by two versions of the folk gospel standard “The Wayfaring Stranger,” about a lost soul on the road home to Jordan, to meet their mother and father.

Despite the nastiness that Alexia does, and she does a whole lot of nastiness, we continue to root for her, and not merely out of sympathy for her past. (We also forgive Ducournau her plot holes and extended dance scenes.) In a man’s world, she’s been forced to give up who she is. She refuses to be yet another classic car to be gazed upon, an inanimate metal object to be worshipped. In the end, all she’s really looking for is to be loved and understood.

Titane is screening September 26, 27, and 29 at the New York Film Festival, with Ducournau, only the second female director to win the Palme D’Or — Jane Campion, whose new western, The Power of the Dog, is the centerpiece selection for NYFF59, won the award in 1993 for The Piano — participating in Q&As after the first two show, before opening theatrically October 1.

BOOMERANG THEATRE COMPANY: THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

Who: Boomerang Theatre Company
What: Live, free Shakespeare
Where: The Ladies Tea Room at the Prince George Hotel, 15 East Twenty-Seventh St.
When: September 24-26, free with advance RSVP (donations accepted)
Why: Just because summer is officially over on September 22 doesn’t mean that there will be no more free Shakespeare. Boomerang Theatre Company, the troupe that has been bringing the Bard to city parks since 1999, is kicking off its fall season with a free, indoor, modern-day production of William Shakespeare’s popular farce, The Comedy of Errors. The show will have four performances September 24-26 in the elegant Ladies Tea Room at the Prince George Hotel, featuring Erika Amato as the Abbess, Emily Ann Banks as Angelo, Nicholas-Tyler Corbin in several roles, Amy Crossman as Dromio of Syracuse, Jessica Giannone as Dromio of Ephesus, Anthony F. Lalor as Antipholus of Ephesus, Roger Lipson as Balthazar, Anthony Michael Martinez as Antipholus of Syracuse, Lance C. Roberts as Egeon and Pinch, Shannon Stowe as the Courtesan, Yeena Sung as Adriana, Logan Thomason as Luciana, and Viet Vo as Duke Solinus.

“The Comedy of Errors, which is at its heart about mistaken identity, reconciliation, and new possibilities, reminds us that comedy and escapism can be a way to cope with the challenges life presents us. At this moment of reopening, it is important to not only reflect on the last eighteen months but also celebrate coming together again,” director Scott Ebersold said in a statement. “So, that is exactly what the ensemble and I are doing: We’re getting all dressed up, and we’re throwing a party! We’re celebrating the return of live theater, the joy of artistic collaboration, and just how fun it is when things go terribly wrong!” Although advance tickets are sold out for what is Boomerang’s twentieth free Shakespeare production, there is a waiting list and walk-up possibilities. As Balthazar says in Act 3, Scene 1, “Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.”

IN CONVERSATION WITH MERCE: LANDROVER

Jacquelin Harris and Chalvar Monteiro perform excerpts from Merce Cunningham’s Landrover in online celebration (photo by Maria Baranova)

Who: Jacquelin Harris and Chalvar Monteiro, Mariah Anton and Cemiyon Barber, Claude “CJ” Johnson and Donovan Reed, Patricia Lent, Kyle Abraham, Liz Gerring
What: Celebration of Merce Cunningham’s Landrover
Where: Baryshnikov Arts Center online
When: September 20-30, free
Why: In honor of the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of Merce Cunningham’s Landrover, which premiered at BAM on February 1, 1972, the Baryshnikov Arts Center is presenting the free online program “In Conversation with Merce,” available on demand through September 30 at 5:00. The work, described by Cunningham as “people moving in different landscapes. American perhaps in the sense that we move in our country — across varied spaces — with varied backgrounds,” featured an original score by John Cage, David Tudor, and Gordon Mumma, boasted costumes by Jasper Johns, and was performed by Carolyn Brown, Ulysses Dove, Douglas Dunn, Meg Harper, Nanette Hassall, Susana Hayman-Chaffey, Chris Komar, Sandra Neels, Chase Robinson, Valda Setterfield, and Cunningham.

Mariah Anton and Cemiyon Barber perform in Liz Gerring’s Dialogue as part of BAC’s Merce tribute (photo by Maria Baranova)

“This program is the latest realization of a concept we began experimenting with during Merce Cunningham’s centennial,” Merce Cunningham Trust trustee Patricia Lent says in an introduction. “At its core is the idea of exploring Merce’s work as a resource for generating new work by contemporary artists.” Beautifully filmed by Tatyana Tenenbaum at BAC’s John Cage & Merce Cunningham Studio, “In Conversation with Merce” starts with a thirteen-minute excerpt of Landrover, a series of solos performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater members Chalvar Monteiro in green and Jacquelin Harris in brown, moving about the spare space dominated by large windows and a mirrored wall, as the music fades to silence. (The lovely costumes for all three pieces are by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung.)

That is followed by two specially commissioned works made in response to Landrover, each introduced by the choreographer, beginning with Liz Gerring’s nine-minute Dialogue, in which Mariah Anton in yellow and Cemiyon Barber in white display numerous geometric possibilities of the human body, set to minimalist music by Michael Schumacher. “In Conversation” concludes with Kyle Abraham’s fourteen-minute MotorRover, a slow, intimate duet performed by Claude “CJ” Johnson and Donovan Reed in loose-fitting two-color costumes, the only sound that of the air-conditioning. BAC has presented a bevy of terrific filmed programs during the pandemic, and this is yet another winner; coming up next are digital works by Mats Ek and Ana Laguna, River L. Ramirez, Sooraj Subramaniam, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Ella Rothschild, and Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith.

NYFF59 MAIN SLATE: BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN

Emi (Katia Pascariu) goes on a strange journey in Rade Jude’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn

BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN: A SKETCH FOR A POSSIBLE FILM (BABARDEALA CU BUCLUC SAU PORNO BALAMUC) (Radu Jude, 2021)
New York Film Festival, Lincoln Center
Saturday, September 25, Alice Tully Hall, with virtual Q&A, 9:00
Sunday, September 26, Francesca Beale Theater, 8:00
www.filmlinc.org

Radu Jude’s brilliantly absurdist Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn lives up to its title, a wildly satiric takedown of social mores that redefines what is obscene. Winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 2021 Berlinale, the multipart tale begins with an extremely graphic prologue, a XXX-rated homemade porn video with a woman and an unseen man holding nothing back. In the first main section, the woman, a successful teacher named Emi (Katia Pascariu), is distressed to learn that the video is threatening to go viral. She determinedly walks through the streets of Bucharest, buying flowers (which she holds upside down), discussing her dilemma with her boss, the headmistress (Claudia Ieremia), and calling her husband, Eugen, trying to get the video deleted before her meeting with angry parents at the prestigious private school where she teaches young children.

Jude and cinematographer Marius Panduru follow the masked Emi — the film was shot during the pandemic, so masks are everywhere — on her journey, the camera often lingering on the scene well after Emi has left the frame, focusing on advertising billboards, couples in the middle of conversations, people waiting for a bus, and other random actions, before finding Emi again. She sometimes fades into the background, barely seen through the windows of a passing vehicle or amid a crowd crossing at a light. She gets into an argument with a man who has parked on the sidewalk, blocking her way; she insists that he move the car, but he unleashes a stream of misogynistic curses. Swear words are prevalent throughout the film, mostly adding poignant humor.

The second segment consists of a montage of archival and new footage that details some of Romania’s recent history, involving the military, the government, religion, fascism, Nazi collaboration, patriotism, the two world wars, the 1989 revolution, Nicolae Ceaușescu, domestic violence, jokes about blondes, and the value of cinema itself. The bevy of images also points out which NSFW word is most commonly looked up in the dictionary, as well as which is second. (The film is splendidly edited by Cătălin Cristuțiu, with a fab soundtrack by Jura Ferina and Pavao Miholjević.)

It all comes together in the third section, in the school garden, where Emi faces a few dozen masked, socially distanced, very angry parents and grandparents who want her fired immediately, while the headmistress demands a calm discussion. The masked Emi is a stand-in for all of us, facing the wrath of the unruly mob forcing its sanctimonious platitudes on others when it really needs to look at itself. It’s a riotously funny sitcomlike debate in which Jude roasts many common, hypocritical beliefs held by Romanians (and people all over the world) that have not necessarily changed much from the news clips shown in the previous part.

The cartoonish cast, which includes Olimpia Mălai as Mrs. Lucia, Nicodim Ungureanu as Lt. Gheorghescu, Alexandru Potocean as Marius Buzdrugovici, and Andi Vasluianu as Mr. Otopeanu, really gets to strut its stuff while making sure their masks are properly covering their mouths and noses. They argue about beloved national poet Mihai Eminescu and Russian writer Isaac Babel, delve into various sexual positions, repeat Woody the Woodpecker’s trademark call, and quote long, intellectual passages from the internet as Jude (I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians, Aferim!) reveals where society’s true obscenities lie. It’s an irreverent tour de force that offers three distinct endings to put a capper on the strangely alluring affair, turning a scary mirror on the sorry state of twenty-first-century existence.

Playfully subtitled A Sketch for a Possible Film in a reference to André Malraux’s description of Eugène Delacroix’s belief that his sketches could be of the same quality as his paintings, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn is making its US premiere September 25 and 26 at the New York Film Festival; the first screening will be followed by a virtual Q&A. The film opens in theaters November 19.

SUN & SEA (MARINA)

Sun & Sea brings the beach to BAM in thrilling production (photo by Barbara Pollack)

SUN & SEA (MARINA)
BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
September 15-26, $25
www.bam.org

The summer beach season might unofficially come to a close on Labor Day weekend, but BAM has extended it through September 26 with the US premiere of Sun & Sea, a wonderfully engaging indoor presentation that brings fun in the sun to Fort Greene. Winner of the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, the hour-long opera takes place on the 57×46-square-foot floor of BAM Fisher, where twenty-one tons of sand have been trucked in from South Jersey and spread out two inches deep. One hundred audience members at a time watch the show from the balcony that surrounds the stage on all four sides; you can walk around to see it from numerous angles as thirteen vocalists and about two dozen locals sing about the environment, bananas, colonialism, the threat of drowning, exhaustion, running out of water, tourism, littering, work, and vacation.

The unnamed characters do what people on the beach generally do: eat, drink, read books and magazines, apply suntan lotion, talk with one another, snooze, and catch rays. Kids play badminton, two men battle it out in a friendly game of ring toss, people check their cell phones, and a dog (Beans or Grimaldi) wanders about while certain characters break into song as the action continues around them. Wealthy Mommy (Kalliopi Petrou) confesses, “What a relief that the Great Barrier Reef has a restaurant and hotel!” Her husband, Workaholic (Vytautas Pastarnokas), surmises, “Suppressed negativity finds a way out unexpectedly.”

The Philosopher (Claudia Graziadei) asks, “Is this not a parody of the Silk Road?” Complaining Lady (Eglė Paškevičienė) declares, “What’s wrong with people?” And one of the young men from the Volcano Couple (Marco Cisco and Lucas Lopes Pereira) opines, “Not a single climatologist predicted a scenario like this / Maybe someone had a feeling.” Hope is embodied by Chanson of Admiration (Nabila Dandara Vieira Santos), who gently conveys, “O la vida.”

Among the others chiming in on income inequality, lava, shrimp, 3D printers, the extinction of the mammoth, and the end of the world are Bossanova Woman (Svetlana Bagdonaitė) and Bossanova Man (Jonas Statkevičius), Dreamer (Artūras Miknaitis), Siren (Ieva Skorubskaitė), 3D Sisters (Auksė Dovydėnaitė and Saulė Dovydėnaitė), and two Choir Singers (Aliona Alymova and Evaldas Alekna). The singing is all matter-of-fact, as if the characters’ thoughts are calmly emerging, one no more urgent than another, set to a shimmering score, mixed live by Salomėja Petronytė, that glistens like sunlight on the ocean. Each audience member is given a printout of the libretto; I got a kick out of peeking at who was next and guessing who the performer would be. (I batted about fifty percent.) Photos are allowed (but not video), and you can stay as long as you want, as the performance repeats for five hours.

Commissioned for the Lithuanian Pavilion at the fifty-eighth Venice Biennale and featuring an all-female creative team, the ingenious Sun & Sea is the second collaboration between director and set designer Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, librettist Vaiva Grainytė, and composer and musical director Lina Lapelytė, the Lithuanian trio’s follow-up to its 2013 show, Have a Good Day!, in which ten cashiers took on capitalism and consumption. It’s a seamless production, like a day at the beach; you can imagine yourself on the sand with the cast, hearing snippets of conversations here, admiring bathing suits there, wishing the kids wouldn’t run across your blanket, and turning over to get an even tan.

But as relaxed as you might feel, there is a rising tide of fear at the future of the planet if we remain on our current path. As the Vacationers’ Chorus intones, “Today they have raised the red and yellow flag up high / The whirlpools of the sea, / drop-offs / riptides / undertows. / You’re not allowed / to wade in / deeper than your knees!” If we don’t start doing something about our environment fast, there’ll be no more beaches or oceans for safe wading at all.