The Brooklyn Academy of Music‘s theatre season features two works by renowned Polish theatre artists this September.
Krzysztof Warlikowski, the Artistic Director of Warsaw’s Nowy Teatr, brings his production of Phaedra(s), adapted from Sarah Kane, J.M. Coetzee, and the Lebanese-Canadian writer Wajdi Mouawad, and starring the French actress Isabelle Huppert. Co-production between Warsaw’s Nowy Teatr and Odéon–Théâtre de l’Europe, Phaedra(s) will be performed from September 13-18, 2016. This U.S. premiere production, performed in French, will also be part of the French Institute/Alliance Française’s Crossing the Line festival.
Confess or repress: those are the options available when you lust after your stepson. The volcanic Isabelle Huppert, as the mythic queen Phaedra, tries both on for size in this carnal triptych combining multiple versions of the salacious Greek legend. Drawing from playwright Sarah Kane’s graphic study Phaedra’s Love and texts by J.M. Coetzee and Wajdi Mouawad for the script, Phaedra(s) imagines its heroine as a brutalized victim—alternately bloodied, blond-wigged, and professorial—cast into a stark world of exotic dancers and glass-walled rooms. Krzysztof Warlikowski directs this postmodern plunge into forbidden love, where sexuality wears sunglasses en route to illicit ends.
Later in the month, from September 28-October 1, Teatr Pieśń Kozła or the Song of the Goat Theatre’s Songs of Lear, directed by Grzegorz Bral, will have its New York premiere. The performance is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic text that weaves together a variety of musical approaches and emphasizes the power of the human voice.
This post was written by the author in their personal capacity.The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of The Theatre Times, their staff or collaborators.
This post was written by Lauren Dubowski.
The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.
