this week in theater

SLEEP NO MORE

Sleep No More, starring Luke Murphy, is finally coming to the end of its long run at the McKittrick Hotel (photo by Thom Kaine)

SLEEP NO MORE
McKittrick Hotel
530 West 27th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Monday – Saturday through January 2, 2025, $80
866-811-4111
www.sleepnomorenyc.com

The less you know about Punchdrunk’s dazzling production, Sleep No More, the better, but one thing you do need to know about this runaway success is that tickets continue to sell fast. Sleep No More takes place at the long-abandoned McKittrick Hotel in Chelsea, where guests are given masks and then left to wander on their own through the myriad rooms of the mysterious warehouse space, a different story going on behind every door and down each hallway. Don’t look for a linear narrative, although there are elements of Shakespeare’s Macbeth scattered about. Many of the rooms contain notebooks, diaries, postcards, letters, medical texts, and other paraphernalia that point toward the McKittrick, which was built in 1939 but shut down shortly thereafter, having been the site for some very questionable scientific experimentation, but don’t get too lost in that either. There are several ways to proceed through this spectacularly immersive theatrical experience; while some visitors prefer to go from room to room and floor to floor more or less in order, others select a character and follow him or her as they meet up with other characters, pause in a room to offer more personal hints at what’s going on, or coax a guest behind closed doors.

Although we strongly suggest you get the early tickets and stay the entire three hours, you still won’t see everything, but don’t worry about that. Just catch what you can and let yourself get swept up in all the action, which includes contemporary dance, fighting, a bloody bath, detective work, interrogation, poisoning, nightclub performances, a fab dinner party, and virtually no dialogue. Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett and choreographer Maxine Doyle’s lighting, Barrett, Livi Vaughan, and Beatrice Minns’s sets, and Stephen Dobbie’s sound design combine to create a dark, spooky mood that is exhilarating and intoxicating. And the more you put into it, the more you get out of it; be adventurous, wear comfortable shoes, and try not to bring a bag, backpack, or coat, because everything needs to be checked. Advance reservations are a must and are scheduled every fifteen minutes between 7:30 and 8:30 Monday through Thursday and 7:00 to 8:00 and 11:00 to midnight on Friday and Saturday. A collaboration between Punchrunk and Emursive, Sleep No More was a hit in London and Boston before becoming New York City’s must-see theatrical event.

QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Silvia Costa’s LA QUIESCENZA DEL SEME will examine birth and consciousness at the Queer New York International Arts Festival

Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement (and other locations)
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
June 7-15, $20
212-598-0400
www.abronsartscenter.org
www.queerny.org

In March 2011, Zvonimir Dobrović, the curator and producer of the Eastern European Perforacije Festival, put together the inaugural American Perforations Festival at Club La MaMa, a collection of eclectic theatrical productions from Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia, and Macedonia. Dobrović, who is also the artistic director of Queer Zagreb, has now teamed up with art historian and independent curator André von Ah to present the first Queer New York International Arts Festival. Taking place June 7-15 primarily at the Abrons Arts Center on the Lower East Side, QNYI features multidisciplinary projects that recontextualize and reconsider what constitutes queer art. The opening-night party, held June 7 at the Delancey, includes performances by Carol Pope, Carmelita Tropicana, Eyes Wild Drag, Sarah-Louise Young, Raul de Nieves, Justin Sayre, Kayvon Zand, and others, with DJ sets by JD Samson, DJ R!C, and DJ Malakai. The shows begin with Stefano Ricci and Gianni Forte’s Macadamia Nut Brittle, which is inspired by writings by Dennis Cooper and focuses on four characters in search of their identity. In Tadaku Takamine’s Kimura-San installation, the artist documents how he cared for a paraplegic, including sexually. In Auto + Batterie, David Wampach uses dissonant music, live drumming, extreme choreography, and whipped cream to bring together sound and movement. In Guintche, a drawing by Marlene Monteiro Freitas explodes into life and becomes unstoppable. Silvia Costa of Plumes dans la tête examines birth and not-birth in La Quiescenza del seme. Igor Josifov’s 2-Dimensional reconfigures performer and audience, as people walk over the Macedonian artist, who is trapped under a plexiglass structure. Body parts figure significantly throughout the festival; François Chaignaud and Cecilia Bengolea look deep into “a reflection of the denial of the anus in dance” in Paquerette at the Invisible Dog in Brooklyn, while Biljana Kosmogina’s ‘P’ Campaign follows the exploits of the presidential candidate Vagina. And East Village Boys are hosting the art exhibit “For personal use” June 7-16 at the Impossible Project, with specially commissioned works by Mx Justin Vivian Bond, Jeff Hahn, Jayson Keeling, Josh McNey, and others.

MY CHILDREN! MY AFRICA!

Athol Fugard play looks at growing unrest in South Africa and the call for liberation over education (photo by Joan Marcus)

The Pershing Square Signature Center
The Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre
480 West 42nd St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
Extended through June 17, $25 through June 10, $75 after
212-244-7529
www.signaturetheatre.org

The year of Athol Fugard, who will turn eighty on June 11, continues with the captivating My Children! My Africa! Following the Roundabout production of The Road to Mecca and the Signature revival of Blood Knot, the latter is now also staging the South African playwright’s 1989 work, set five years earlier in an Eastern Cape Karoo town soon to be under siege. A white teenager named Isabel (Allie Gallerani), who comes from a wealthy family, is debating Thami (Stephen Tyrone Williams), a black teen, about women’s rights, specifically regarding education. The battle takes place in a classroom run by the inspiring teacher Mr. M (James A. Williams). Impressed by each of their performances, Mr. M asks them to team up for a public contest on nineteenth-century English poetry, an idea to which they both heartily agree despite the rare mixing of the races. But their training sessions are soon interrupted by growing unrest in the Location, where black students are preparing to march for liberation over education, pitting Thami against both Mr. M and Isabel, although for different reasons, leading to a surprising and shocking climax. Echoing the simmering anti-Apartheid movement that would soon explode, My Children! My Africa! serves as a microcosm of that revolutionary moment in time, in which the younger generation fought with the older generation and whites and blacks were enemies. Directed by Tony Award-winning actor, writer, and director Ruben Santiago-Hudson and featuring interstitial music by Bobby McFerrin, the play gives each actor the opportunity to deliver a long soliloquy directly to the audience, explaining who they are and what they stand for, without being didactic and obvious; the show often teeters just on the edge of clichédom but only crosses the line in the very last, wholly unnecessary scene. Otherwise, My Children! My Africa! is a stirring, beautifully acted examination of fading tradition, racial and class tension, and the inherent value of a good education.

HOWL! FESTIVAL 2012

Street artists will surround Tompkins Square Park with colorful murals during the Howl! Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Tompkins Square Park
Ave. A to Ave. B between Seventh & Tenth Sts.
June 2-3, free
www.howlfestival.com

The Howl! Festival returned last night to Tompkins Square Park, where it continues this weekend with a flurry of music, poetry, dance, theater, art, and “madness.” Today, as 140 artists create murals on canvases that surround the park, such groups as the Disco Monkeys and the Bowery Tones will play on the south stag. On the north stage, Honeybee House, the TriBattery Pops, Tap City, and Lydon will perform for children. Also for little ones, the Great Howl! Out Loud Kids’ Carnival will feature carnival games, arts and crafts, storytelling, and other activities. At the basketball court area, Bandera Fever! celebrates Puerto Rican heritage with Dao Y El Grupo Cemi, BombaYo, Elani Rodriguez, John Acevedo AKA Chance, J. F. Seary, Dinamicas, Senior Bomba & Plena Dancers from Grand Street Settlement, and a domino tournament. Super DJ Johnny Dynell will lead the Hot Howl! Disco Tea Dance near the General Slocum Memorial from 2:00 to 5:00, the Vangeline Theatre will perform The Raft of the Medusa, and Derrick Pendavis Xtravaganza will lead the unpredictable “Men in Skirts” dance presentation at 5:30. On Sunday, Hip Hop Howl, the Deans of Discipline, the Sic Fucks, and Bear 54, will be on the main stage, Rosie’s Theater Kids, Danny Hartig, Honeybee House, and Jack Skuller will be on the kids’ north stage, Bandera Fever! will continue with a Cultural Rumba Jam, and the festival will conclude with “Low Life 6: East Village Others,” paying tribute to the Fugs song “Nova Slum Goddess (from the Lower East Side),” Jack Smith, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, the Fillmore East, Allen Ginsberg, and other old standards from the East Village circa 1966-72.

POST PLASTICA

POST PLASTICA is a multimedia collaboration between PS 122 and El Museo del Barrio

El Teatro, El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Ave. at 104th St.
May 31 – June 3, $20, 7:30
212-352-3101
www.ps122.org

PS 122 and El Museo del Barrio have joined forces to present the multimedia performance Post Plastica, a virtual fantasy that imagines the future of art as well as the world itself. Created by sisters Ela Troyano and Alina Troyano, who is also known as Carmelita Tropicana, Post Plastica stars Tropicana as a woman who gets a Botox injection that puts her in a coma, sending her off on an adventure that includes a woman-bear scientist played by Becca Blackwell (Untitled Feminist Show) and the title character, played by Erin Markey (Green Eyes). A mix of video and live performance, Post Plastica features production design by Aliza Shvarts, costumes by Yail Romagoza, lighting by Chris Hudacs, and projections by Uzi Parnes. Each evening will be preceded by a special event at El Museo beginning at 6:00, including an exhibit of stereoscopic imagery by Richard Pell on May 31, the lecture/demonstration “Meet the Celebrity” with Fufurufu and Nao Bustamente on June 1, an “Urban Beekeeping” discussion with Guillermo Fernandez and Jennifer Monson on June 2, and the “Normal Is Good” interview between Shvars and Romagoza on June 3.

END OF THE RAINBOW

Peter Quilter’ss END OF THE RAINBOW tells the poignant story of Judy Garland’s last stand

Belasco Theatre
111 West 44th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Through November 11, $31.50 – $126.50
www.endoftherainbowbroadway.com

In 2005, British playwright Peter Quilter scored big with a pair of Olivier Award-nominated musical dramas based on real performers. Glorious! told the story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the worst singer in the world. The other, End of the Rainbow, delved into what essentially turned out to be Judy Garland’s last stand as she tried to regain her status as one of the best, most beloved entertainers on the planet. Tony and Drama Desk-nominated Tracie Bennett makes an electrifying Broadway debut as Garland, who arrives at the Ritz Hotel in London to prepare for a five-week engagement at the Talk of the Town in December 1968. She’s joined by her much younger manager and fiancé, Mickey Deans (Tom Pelphrey), and her pianist, Anthony (Tony nominee Michael Cumpsty), who makes reference to a previous disaster five years earlier in Sidney. As she battles her addictions to pills and alcohol, Garland refuses to see just how desperate her financial situation is, playing diva to the full as everything threatens to fall apart around her. Bennett is sensational as Garland, effortlessly shifting between poignant scenes in the hotel room and dazzling ― and purposefully not-so-dazzling ― performances of such standards as “The Man That Got Away,” “Come Rain or Shine,” “The Trolley Song,” “Just in Time,” and “When You’re Smiling.” The back wall of William Dudley’s elegant hotel room set occasionally rises, revealing a live band and converting the space into a nightclub, with Garland playing to the audience as she sings the classic tunes, sometimes grasping the microphone like it’s her lover, at other times getting tangled in it like it’s trying to strangle her. Although only forty-seven at the time, Garland looked twenty years older at the end of her life, ravaged by childhood stardom, a series of failed marriages she constantly refers to, and her various addictions, and the fifty-year-old Bennett embodies that telling discrepancy with both grace and humility. Quilter and director Terry Johnson (La Cage au Folles) explore whether Deans was a money-hungry enabler or a truly caring husband-to-be, while the fictional character of Anthony just might be Garland’s only true friend. End of the Rainbow is a deliciously dishy yet ultimately intimate and painful look at the end of an American legend.

THE FESTIVAL OF RUSSIAN ARTS

Yuri Kara’s adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s THE MASTER AND MARGARITA is part of Russian festival examining literature, film, and more

Multiple locations throughout Manhattan
Through June 6
Admission: free
causaartium.org

The inaugural Festival of Russian Arts is under way, comprising special events around the city through June 6. Officially subtitled “New York’s Entry into the Rich and Dynamic World of Russian Art and Culture,” the festival includes film screenings, literary readings, panel discussions, and receptions. On Saturday, May 26, at 4:00, playwright Yaroslava Pulinovich, translator John Freedman, and director Tamilla Woodard will participate in “I Won! A Staged Reading and Open Discussion” at the Little Times Square Theatre, featuring a pair of one-act, one-woman shows, I Won! and Natasha’s Dream. On May 29 at 5:30, Pulinovich will join Irina Bogatyreva, Polina Klyukina, and moderator Jenny Lyn Bader for the talk “Shattered Icons: The Demise of Heroes in America and Russia” at the New York Public Library’s Berger Forum. On May 31, Cathy Nepomnyashchy will lead the discussion “Writers at the Flashpoint: New Russian Writing & the Riddle of the Caucasus” at the Connor Room at the Mid-Manhattan Library with Arslan Khasavov, Alisa Ganieva, and Sergei Shargunov. From June 1 to June 6, “Diverging Perspectives: Filming Russian Literature in Russia and in the West” will screen various versions of such literary classics as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (by Richard Brooks, Petr Zelenka, and Ivan Pyryev), Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat (by Alberto Lattuada, Grigori Kozintsev & Leonid Trauberg, Aleksey Batalov, and Michael McCarthy), and Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita (by Yuri Kara, Paul Bryers, and Andrzej Wajda) at the Tribeca Grand Cinema and the NYU Cantor Film Center, with talks before and after most presentations. On June 2, Martin Amis and Olga Slavnikova will discuss “Side by Side: A Conversation with Writers from Different Worlds” in the NYPL’s South Court Auditorium, moderated by Leonard Lopate. All events are free and open to the public.