“A story is something that connects us, that manages to transcend time or cultural difference,” said director Yngvild Aspeli.
Theater has long been involved in storytelling, even in its more experimental corners. At this year’s Under the Radar festival, the Public Theater’s annual survey of avant-garde theater and performance in New York, some of these stories may sound familiar. Half a dozen major works from various sources, including Mark Twain’s satirical monologues, James Joyce’s erotic letters, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and “Antigone,” deliberately dialogue with literary classics and ephemera.
“I am interested in the contemporary because it comes from antiquity,” said Mark Russell, who founded and programmed the festival. “And I was fascinated by these primitive theatrical impulses and primitive texts.”
Running through January 22 at Public and five public venues, this is the first iteration of Under the Radar since 2020. The 2022 festival was canceled just weeks before its opening due to the increase in Covid-19 cases. While slightly less international than in past years (acknowledgment of the hassle and cost of obtaining visas for artists), it still represents an important array of narratives, styles, and styles. For example, Aspeli’s adaptation of “Moby-Dick” is performed by 50 puppets and an underwater orchestra.
Not all of these projects were conceived during the pandemic, but even those previously imagined seem determined to find a language – textual and visual – to apply to this uncertain cultural moment. Much of this language is literary and focuses on themes of isolation and community. Many of the programmed studies examine grief and loss, while others offer alternatives such as friendship and pleasure. Some do both.
“Perhaps in a time of crisis, we can use this past poetry to bring us joy, relief, and connection,” said Rachel Mars, creator of the “Your Sexts” performance piece. (The show has a longer title, but like many sex texts it’s non-printable.)
The New York Times spoke to the artists at six of this year’s shows about the literary works that inspired them and how the pages of the past speak to the present. These are edited excerpts from the speeches.
‘Our country’
Inspiration:Sophocles’ “Antigone”
Annie Saunders, co-producer and actress: As someone who struggles with believing in himself, I am interested in “Antigone” with the idea of believing in himself so much. Another thing that really interests me is the brother-sister dynamic, having a brother you feel you have to save. My brother has a criminal record. He’s really great now. But that was the dynamic for many years. In the summer of 2016, I spent a few days with my brother and made about 10 hours of tape where we talked to each other about “Antigone”, about our childhood, about guilt, about the law. This became an important part of the show.
“Antigone” is an anchor. I always come back to that main story that deals with basic human themes about right and wrong, self-belief, family obligations. These are basic human experiences.
“Otto Frank”
Inspiration:“Diary of Anne Frank”
Roger Guenveur Smith, creator and performer: I was invited to a theater festival in Amsterdam. I went to the Anne Frank House. I was very inspired and very emotional. I always try to bring the past into the present. The idea that Otto Frank had to get to know his daughter through that diary, especially the way he lost her, must have been an extraordinarily daunting exercise. Given this ongoing crisis we are still in, I thought this would be something worth pursuing.
The main challenge is: How does a man reverse the natural order of things and create a memorial for his daughter? Serving the living and the dead at the same time is a huge challenge for Otto Frank and many of us who are currently dealing with loss.
“Your Sexts”
Inspiration: James Joyce, Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keeffe, etc. erotic letters.
Rachel Mars, creator and performer: I was in residence. Brexit had just happened. He creatively took the wind out of my sails. Then [writer and actor] Scott Sheppard was like, “I have something to cheer you up.” He read me this James Joyce 1909 letter. The clarity, the poetry, the imagery, the fact that it’s all about butts surprised me. He was affirming super life.
I started looking for who else had written these letters. I worked with two sexologists. Finding women and queer women was obviously more difficult, because History , but it was easier than I thought. There is definitely something illegal. It feels like opening a crack in people’s private lives. But there is a sanctity in it, a kind of respect.
‘KLII’
Inspiration:Mark Twain’s “King Leopold’s Soliloquy”, Patrice Lumumba’s independence speech
Creator, assistant director and actor Kaneza Schaal: My practice is about remembering. Today we look at a figure like Leopold [the Belgian king who presided over the persecution in the Free State of Congo] with false fear, his brutality stunned and angered. But there are new Leopolds every day. For me, this was a way to banish this evil. I am concerned with looking inward and outward to banish these disastrous figures and cataclysmic events.
Christopher Myers, assistant director and designer: Mark Twain was interested in the Congo and understood the relationship between the oppression of Africans there and the oppression of Africans in their own country. This text by Mark Twain was in line with the internationalism and cross-cultural cross-pollination that inspired many anti-colonial causes. It’s about seeing not only the dates of these particular texts, but also how these texts collide with each other. One of the things that theater does really well is that it lets you rub one text against other texts.
“Moby Dick”
Inspiration:Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick”
Director and puppet maker Yngvild Aspeli: This story touches on these things that go beyond time despite being an old story. Whether spearfishing at sea or getting lost in our cyber world, mankind still struggles with the same problems. We use this old story as a mirror, a prism.
Our inner struggles are somehow always the same, the questions are the same: the complexity of being human, how we fight our inner demons, how we try to understand our place in society, existential questions about life and death, and all that lies. between. Mysteries of life.
“King Gilgamesh and the Wild Man”
Inspiration:Epic of Gilgamesh
Ahmed Moneka, creator and performer: I am Iraqi, I was born in Baghdad. I grew up with this legend. I was exiled. I finished in Toronto. Jesse became my first friend on the stage. Parallel to this is the relationship between Gilgamesh and his best friend Enkidu.
Jesse LaVercombe, creator and performer:We oscillate between this contemporary story and this totally old, sometimes cartoonish, sometimes tragic epic.
Seth Bockley, creator and director: I just didn’t want to dwell on themes. I wanted that story to be retold. There is something sacred about it. We need each other to transcend the world. This is the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.