Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theatre, NYC
Dixon Place, NYC
Directed by ANIMALS: Mike Meekos, Nikki Calonge, Michael DeAngelis
Created with Brighid Greene, Lucy Kaminsky, Madison Krekel, Eva Peskin, and Linda Mancini
“Animals’ performances are irreverent mashups of video, dance and puppetry...poignant and hilarious.. ”
— BRIENNE WALSH, PAPER MAGAZINE
“[...] more than a re-telling of the Baroness' life based on original source material; instead, it is a meditation on the contrast between making art and being a successful artist.. ”
— CHRISTOPHER GABELLO, INTERVIEW MAGAZINE
About the show
Exploding into incantation and dance, The Baroness is the Future unfolds the life and work of poetess, found object sculptor, and proto-Dadaist Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, whom Duchamp called simply, “the future.”
The Baroness’ cross-dressing, kleptomania, outlandish costumes, found object sculptures, sexual escapades, brawls, and abstract poems shocked, delighted and inspired the greatest names of the Dada movement. However, due in part to her own unwillingness or inability to conform, the Baroness was ultimately excluded from their successes and died alone and penniless in a Parisian garret.
In a collision of the Baroness’ ecstatic early poems with unpublished fragments of a regret-filled autobiography, TBITF asks what happens when creativity and responsibility fight.
Performed by: Brighid Greene, Lucy Kaminsky, Madison Krekel, Eva Peskin, Nikki Colonge, and Linda Mancini
Designed by: Joel Melton, Michael DeAngelis, Joe Cantalupo, and Wendy Yang