A weekly, highly personal and subjective list of performances and artists we want you to know about:
Martha says:
Don’t be fooled when Suzanne Bocanegra labels her upcoming work “Farmhouse/Whorehouse” as an Artist Lecture. It is that, of course. But Bocanegra doesn’t lecture; she tells stories, in marvelous multi-media, large-scale performances that include text, film, costumes, textiles, and more. Bocanegra mines her own history for these tales, often mythic in scale. When other mouths and personalities, people such as Paul Lazar, Frances McDornand, and for this new work at BAM Fisher, the unique Lili Taylor, speak those words, they add layers of quirky magnetism.
“Farmhouse/Whorehouse: An Artist Lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra Starring Lily Taylor” was inspired by her grandparents, whose small farm was near the ranch that inspired the Broadway hit “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” Yep. You can’t make that up, and Bocanegra will find the riches buried in that patch of Texas dirt. Runs December 12 at 7:30 pm through December 16.
In work whose inspiration ranges from France to Japan, Kota Yamazaki and his company Fluid hug-hug offer the world premiere of “Darkness Odyssey Part 2: I or Hallucination” at Baryshnikov Arts Center. This is the second part of Yamazaki’s “Darkness Odyssey Trilogy,” anchored in the collaborations of philosopher Gilles Deleuze and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari, and shaped by a master of butoh, Tatsumi Hijikata, who created the idea of a “dance of darkness.” Japanese goze music, another influence, is also an art of darkness: the women trained in this folk tradition were born blind.
Each dancer is asked to inhabit their bodies, their darkness, their part of the whole, in interpretations that “create a fragmented, but interconnected universe.” The cast Yamazaki has assembled is impressive, including Julian Barnett, Raja Feather Kelly, Joanna Kotze and Mina Nishimura. Theirs will be inner terrain worthy of exploration. Runs December 13 at 7:30 pm through December 15.
Cover: Grandma Munsch, courtesy of Suzanne Bocanegra.
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