PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, presents “The Art of Theater” and “With My Own Hands,” Copresented With the Public Theater’s Under The Radar Festival.

Following their residency at PS21 in December 2021, celebrated French playwright and director Pascal Rambert, actors Jim Fletcher and Ismail ibn Conner, and translator Nicholas Elliott return to PS21’s Black Box Theater for four public performances of The Art of Theater and With My Own Hands. This engagement is copresented with The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival.

The Art of Theater

The Art of Theater, composed in 2007, is a manifesto about the nature of dramatic acting, spoken by a single actor who addresses, not the audience, but his dog, who patiently attends to his master’s voice. The audience, in effect, eavesdrops on the monologue. Fletcher, who co-starred with Kate Moran in Rambert’s two-character Love’s End (Clôture de l’Amour), previously appeared at PS21 in 2019, in the title role of Compagnie l’heliotrope’s Pollock.

With My Own Hands

Since it was first performed in 1993, Rambert has adapted this protean meditation on the human condition, a soliloquy spoken by a wounded psyche on the brink of suicide, for a series of settings and performers, including the American actor Kate Moran in 2007. At the time, he said, “I wrote this text to be played by both men and women, young and old.” At PS21, Conner, who has performed widely in Centre Dramatique National Orléans’ production of Jean Genet’s Splendid’sand many other theatrical works, will embody the role of protagonist of this searing, enigmatic monologue. The work is a puzzle of dark ideas on the nature of the human condition, performed with a somber humor. 

About the Under The Radar Festival

Held each January, the Under The Radar Festival is widely recognized as a premier launching pad for new and cutting-edge performance from the U.S. and abroad. Under the Radar has presented works by such respected artists as Elevator Repair Service, Nature Theater of Oklahoma, Gob Squad, Belarus Free Theatre, Guillermo Calderón, and Young Jean Lee. These artists provide a snapshot of contemporary theater: richly distinct in terms of perspectives, aesthetics, and social practice, and pointing to the future of the art form. Housed at the Public Theater in NYC since its founding in 2004, this year’s 17th edition takes to the road, partnering with PS21 to bring this cutting edge programming to our state-of-the-art theater in Chatham, NY. 

DATE/TIME: January 14 – January 23, 2022
January 14 / 7pm
January 15 / 3pm

January 22 / 3pm
January 23 / 3pm

TICKETS: $25 – $45
Available Online

LOCATION: PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century
2980 Route 66
Chatham, NY 12037

MORE:
ps21chatham.org
facebook.com/PS21Chatham
instagram.com/ps21chatham

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