Going to Hell at P.S. 122

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Icelanders, photo by Dona Ann McAdams

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Michael Turay as The Gnome, photo by Dona Ann McAdams


It's a cheesy title, but I couldn't resist. Now through April 9 you have a chance to see an extraordinary opera by the composer Michael Webster and the poet Eileen Myles. It will be one of the best hours (it's not long so don't be scared) you've spent in a while. I don't want to give too much away, because it is theater, after all. Let's just say it's about a world where the war-mongers have done such a good job that Hell is practically jealous.

Here is an excerpt from the libretto (available on the Hell web site):

Poet:

No, I’m serious. There’s a group of trees coming right towards us.

Man:

And I’m telling you don’t even think about it.

It’s Father Tree.

People love him.

He’s our leader.

And he doesn’t do a thing

He’s the President of the World.

Poet:

Well, shouldn’t we greet him, or something?

Maybe he wants to meet me?

Man:

No, that’s what’s so great about him. He doesn’t care.

He has absolutely no curiosity.

He’s famous for that.

I also love the description of "the opposition," the Gnome:

If the Gnome mattered at all he’d be Father Tree’s enemy.

If you need more incentive in addition to the word of Eileen Myles, great music and singing, and brilliant use of video by Peter Flaherty, there is also an "opera hunk" of whom I have spoken before, David Adam Moore. He looks like this and he can sing and act.

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David Adam Moore as Lewis, photo by Beth Morrison

Links:

Hell

Performance Space 122

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This page contains a single entry by published on April 6, 2006 11:35 AM.

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