Oberon to Present ICARUS, JERKUS CIRCUS & More in May & June

OBERON, the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.)'s second stage and club theater venue, announces its May and June line up of exciting and original programming on the fringe of Harvard Square.

The coming months include limited engagements as well as the return of OBERON favorites such as The Moth, You're the Expert, and Mortified; as well as OBERON Artists in Residence The Boston Circus Guild's Speakeasy Circus, Touch Performance Art's AcousticaElectronica, and Liars and Believers's Icarus.

The complete lineup is as follows:

ICARUS
Presented by Liars & Believers and OBERON
Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays from May 1st through 11th @ 7:30pm
Tickets: $25-35

HURRY! HURRY! HURRY! See Minnie Minoseczeck's Menagerie of Marvels - a show of amazements and abominations, traversing the land through the Great Depression! Icarus is a tale of poverty, love, transcendence and oppression!

See Passionate Penny fly through the air! Hear the mellifluous music of Icarus!Watch them try to escape monsters and machinations of all kinds!

Created by OBERON Artists in Residence, Liars & Believers, Icarus features an original Americana score by Nathan Leigh and the fantastical puppetry by Faye Dupras.

STRIP ZEPPLIN
Presented by Niki Luparelli
Friday, May 2nd at 10:30pm
Tickets: $20-30

Comedian & vocalist Niki Luparelli-producer of numerous shows celebrating individual artists & cultural icons such as David Bowie, James Bond, Madonna, & Prince-brings to OBERON, Cambridge, on Friday, May 2, her Strip Zeppelin spectacular, a livemusic and burlesque explosion blending the best of Led Zeppelin with the best of Boston's burlesque and aerial artists.

THE BIG QUIZ THING
Presented by OBERON and The Big Quiz Thing
Monday, May 5th at 8:00pm
FREE ADMISSION!

Step up, geeks: The Big Quiz Thing, the major-league game show that you get to play, is live at OBERON every month!Quizmaster Noah Tarnow presents five big rounds of the world's greatest multimedia quiz excitement, including video puzzles, audio clues, the Lightning Round, the buzzer-tastic Three-Way Finale, and the best, smartest quiz questions anywhere! Plus, there's hope for dummies: Smart-Ass Points for wrong but funny answers. Best of all, the $200 cash grand prize, along with show tickets books, DVDs, CDs, baked goods, and more excellent goodies.

YOU'RE THE EXPERT
Tuesday, May 6th at 7:00pm
Tickets: $15

You're the Expert bridges the worlds of comedy and academia, attracting a comedy audience while providing them with meaningful content. Each show features an expert in a somewhat obscure field. A group of hilarious comedians try to guess what in the world our expert studies all day long. Afterwards, the expert dissects how wildly wrong (or right) the ideas about her field were. The show ends with an interview where we find out what our expert does and why their field is important. It's funny, it's interactive, and you end up actually learning something.

JERKUS CIRCUS
Presented by The Steamy Bohemians
Friday, May 9th at 10:30pm
Tickets $15-25

Jerkus Circus, also known as "Jerk du Soleil," is the award-winning vaudeville show that will steal your heart, your wallet, and probably make out with your girlfriend. Called "haute vaudeville" by the Boston Phoenix, and named "Best Nouvelle Vaudeville" in their Best of 2009 readers poll, Jerkus Circus has an irreverent and individualistic charm. Founded in 2005, the show is widely considered to have pioneered the current NeoVaudeville movement in Boston. It's traveled through Boston, New York, Providence, and Worcester. Featuring wildly diverse performance artists, uniquely hilarious comedic acts, pasties, drug references, and all of your favorite swear words. Created, produced, and hosted by The Steamy Bohemians. Watch us channel the gods of chaos! Our struggle will seem effortless. What song will Lainey forget how to play? What will Niki pull out of her boobs? There's only one way to find out. Come see hilarious comedians, scary weirdos, sexy dancing, and fabulous music.

THE LITERARY ROAST
Presented by Weird Love Productions
Monday, May 12th at 8:00pm
Tickets $12-25

Did school assignments about Edgar Allan Poe make your midnights dreary? Do you wish you could em-dash Emily Dickinson? Have you always wanted to pop Ernest Hemingway in the jaw? Do you objectively despise Ayn Rand? The Literary Roast has hired a crack team to knock these authors down a peg with words, music, comedy, booze, and tits. Starring: Stephen Burt, Daniel Nester, Madge of Honor, Johnny Blazes, Janaka Stucky, Wes Hazard, Dan Chelotti, Allix Mortis, Michael J. Epstein & Sophia Cacciola, Sarah Oktay, Aquanette Jones, Jane Doe, Krysten Hill, Busty Keaton, Sam Cha, hosted by Jade Sylvan.

ACOUSTICAELECTRONICA
Presented by Touch Performance Art and OBERON
Tuesday, May 13th at 9:30pm
Tickets: $25-55

Presented by Touch Performance Art and OBERON, AcousticaElectronica is a mind-blowing event that blends elements of electronic and classical music, dance, circusarts and immersive theatre with the infectious energy of the contemporary nightclub. Leaders in these industries have teamed up to create an extraordinary, next-generation experience. This ultimate dance party becomes an immersive event for the audience. Dancers, symphonies, aerialists, operas, and live musicians (THE WIG included) all happen around every inch of the space to keep the audience guessing at every turn.

DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!
Presented by HYPE! Mime Troupe
Tickets: $8-12

These mimes ain't stuck in no box! HYPE! Mime Troupe gives traditional mime performance a modern twist, writing, directing, and performing original skits set to contemporary music. These mimes will accompany your Wednesday night drinks by presenting original stories that range from the comedic to the tragic to the absurd and everything in between--all in whiteface, of course.

RAIN DOGS
Presented by Babes in Boinkland
Thursday, May 15th; Friday May 16th and Sunday, May 18th at 8:00pm
Tickets: $25-30

Climb aboard our shipwreck train, through the alley, back from hell to the strains of Tom Waits' RAIN DOGS. Splash the wine and huddle the doorways. Get out of your mind. For you are a Rain Dog, too. Music performed live by Peter Mulvey and the Crumbling Beauties. Babes in Boinkland dance and swallow the night. For it is all ripe for dreaming.

THE MOTH
Presented by The Moth StorySlam
Tuesday, May 20th at 8:00pm
Tickets: $8-16

The Moth StorySLAMs are steadily spreading all over the map, gathering people and stories from all over the country. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit/Ann Arbor have multiple shows each month. Louisville and Pittsburgh, added last year, are thriving. And this fall we're thrilled to add Boston, Milwaukee, Portland and Seattle! The shows are open to anyone with a five-minute story to share on the night's posted theme. The brave of heart, or those with stories they're aching to tell, prepare personal, true tales. When the doors open, storyteller hopefuls puttheir names in The Moth hat. A half hour later, names are picked, and one by one, storytellers take the stage. Each person has just five minutes! The ten featured stories are scored by teams of judges selected from the audience. Each StorySLAM generates a StorySLAM winner. After ten SLAMs, the winners face off in our GrandSLAM Championships. Come sign up to tell a story, or just enjoy the show!

SPEAKEASY CIRCUS
Presented by The Boston Circus Guild and OBERON
Friday, May 23rd at 7:00pm and 10:00pm
Tickets: $25-45

Get dolled up in your finest threads and put on your dancing shoes! Join us as we transform A.R.T.'s OBERON into the Oberon Social Club, a hot new speakeasy guaranteed to liven up the scene. The coolcats and dapper dames from the Boston Circus Guild will amaze you with phenomenal acts, including acrobatic feats of strength, astounding juggling, high-energy hooping, titillating burlesque, and glamorous aerial performances, all set to the sounds of the hippest electroswing and jazz in Boston.

Enter our underground cabaret and get front row seats to a spectacular show both on and offstage. Seedy thugs mingle with drunken socialites, flappers dance their cares away, and the band keeps the joint jumpin'. Through it all, our club's proprietor will have to make deals with bootlegging gangsters, keep away from thefuzz, and manage one sassy diva. Will he be able to balance his unstable partnership with an unsavory crime boss and his dream of having the coolest club around? Will the business of the underworld be too much for him? Wild times are sure to ensue!

MURIEL ROBIN
Presented by WORLD MUSIC/CRASHarts
Wednesday, June 4th at 8:00pm
Tickets: $25-40

French comedian and actress Muriel Robin, comes to Boston for the first time with her all French, one woman show, Muriel Robin Returns ... Tsoin Tsoin. After leaving the stage eight years ago, Robin returns a new woman, with a new life story, yet still funny and a huge hit in France.

EN-ER-GY 5
Presented by Jha-D
Friday, June 6th at 8:00pm
Tickets: $15-25

EN-ER-GY is an exploration of Boston talent. It is an evening in which the Audience and the Artists will give each other as much love, life, experience and Energy as they possibly can. It is an opportunity to bring a diverse cast of artists and guests under one roof to celebrate the excitement of art. It is more than atalent show! It is a contribution to Boston's music, poetry and dance scene. It is a collection of artists who own the ability to entertain, showcase, engage and inspire. It is one of the best shows you will ever have the pleasure ofparticipating in!

MORTIFIED
Presented by Mortified Media
Friday, June 13th at 8:00pm
Tickets: $15

Hailed as a "cultural phenomenon" by NewsWeek and celebrated for years by the likes of This American Life, The Today Show, The Onion AV Club, & Entertainment Weekly, Mortified is a comic excavation of teen angst artifacts (journals, poems, letters, lyrics, home movies, schoolwork) as shared by their original authors -- in front of total strangers. Where else can you hear grown men and women confront their past with firsthand tales of their first kiss, first puff, worst prom, fights with mom, life at bible camp, worst hand job, best mall job, and reasons they deserved to marry Bon Jovi? Submissions come from a wide range of participants, from professional performers to total amateurs. All in the noble pursuit of self-degradation.Share the shame.

CLASS ACT
Presented by Ryan P. Casey
Sunday, June 15th at 4:00pm
Tickets: $16-20

Class Act is a rhythm tap show inspired by the Big Band Jazz era of the 1920's and 30's, which blends tap dance with humor, poetry, cinematography and more.

DISCO PIGS
Presented by Colleen Hughes
Thursday, June 19th at 8:00pm
Tickets: $15-25

A raucous ride through Cork, Ireland, Disco Pigs follows two best friends as they try to hold on to a childhood that they may already have lost. Disco Pigs follows Pig and Runt, best friends living in Cork, Ireland, as they navigate their coming of age. Inseparable sincebirth, they have always faced the world together, but as their 17th birthday celebration goes on, their friendship will be put to the test. Will Pig andRunt be able to hold on to their kingdom of Pork City, or will the booze, lust, and violence break their extraordinary bond?

REVENGE OF THE ROBOT BATTLE NUNS
Presented by the Slaughterhouse Sweethearts
Friday, June 20th and Sunday June 29th at 8:00pm
Tickets: $15-20

The End of the World. Foxy hallucinations. The President's mutant daughter. Mad science. Cannibals. And one bloody, perverse story of revenge. Who amongst you has a taste for the bizarre? An eager ear for this terrible tale? For those with a strong stomach, a twisted mind, and a perverse groin, REVENGE of the ROBOT BATTLE NUNS has it all. Aerialists, stilt walking, gender bending, boylesque, splatter, a rocking soundtrack, comedy, violence, and, of course, pasties.