Big Dance Theater’s production of Ich, Kürbisgeist, written by Sibyl Kempson, is a theatrical piece of writing, but it is not a play in the usual sense. The language itself manifests the harsh landscape of a world facing destruction, populated by five crude people speaking a rigorous, specific, invented language. The characters are grounded in fear, absurd and doomed. They harvest pumpkin seeds; they sing; they dance; they reminisce. Their outrageous costumes, created by visual artist Suzanne Bocanegra, place us in an unspecified medieval European locale. Ich, Kürbisgeist, strangely comic, full of rawness, fragmentation, confusion, and superstition, is in the end a contemplation of language itself.

PREMIERE:
October 15, 2012 | The Chocolate Factory Theater 

HISTORY:
October 31 – November 9, 2013
New York Live Arts
New York, NY

October 25 – November 10, 2012
The Chocolate Factory Theater
co-presented by Performance Space 122
Long Island City, NY

CREDITS:
Directed by Paul Lazar
Co-directed/Choreographed by Annie-B Parson
Written by Sibyl Kempson

Set Joanne Howard
Video Karinne Keithley, Josh Higgason, Jeff Larson
Music Karinne Keithley and Ben Williams
Lights Joe Levasseur
Sound Jamie McElhinney
Costumes Suzanne Bocanegra
Production Manager Brendan Regimbal
Produced by Aaron Rosenblum

Performers Tymberly Canale, Eric Dyer, Molly Hickok, Paul Lazar, Kourtney Rutherford

EXTRAS

Interview with Aaron Mattocks, Annie-B Parson and Sibyl Kempson
Slideshow of Suzanne Bocanegra’s Bessie-nominated costumes (photos by Peter Serling)
Buy the play from 53rd State Press

Photos by Paula Court

“The directors, Paul Lazar and Annie-B Parson, never fail to fascinate with their seamless integrations of movement, text, video, song and scenic design.” – New York Times

*

“Funny, serious and scary at once, endlessly interesting visually and verbally … The carnage, still spectacular, assaults all your senses.” – Metro New York