As part of the 2018 Next Wave Festival, BAM and Onassis Cultural Center New York will present Speaking Truth to Power, a fall series of theater productions, conversations, and film screenings that explores the concept of free speech as a form of resistance, and examines the challenges facing individuals, societies, and movements that seek to employ it. While freedom of speech is considered a cornerstone of our democratic freedoms, ancient Greeks wrestled with the extent to which the power to speak freely could degrade the very institutions designed to protect that right. The debate about the role of truth--who is able to speak it and the potential dangers posed to our society when it is either permitted or restricted--rages on.
Anthony S. Papadimitriou, President and Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Onassis Foundation, said, "It is the duty of every citizen, as it is ours at the Onassis Foundation--which exists for the benefit of the public and, beyond Greek art and ideas, promotes social welfare in all its forms--to defend truth and keep it alive through dialogue and culture. It may prove the best defense we have against letting our societies sink into oblivion. We hope that our collaboration with BAM in Speaking Truth to Power highlights this responsibility and its urgency today more than ever before." This robust series comprises two theater productions; four humanities programs; a four-part film series; a conversation and film event; a visual art installation; and an exhibition of materials from the BAM Hamm Archives.Theater Programming
The Bacchae
By Euripides
Translation by Aaron Poochigian
Directed by Anne Bogart
Created and performed by Siti Company
Greek
Scottish Opera/Opera Ventures
Libretto by Steven Berkoff from his play Greek
Adapted by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Jonathan Moore
Composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage
Conducted by Stuart Stratford
Directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins
Associate Director Daisy Evans
Humanities Programming
On Fear and Governance
With Anne Bogart and Monica Youn
In conversation with Corey Robin
Co-presented by BAM and the Onassis Cultural Center New York
Oct 5 at 6pm, BAM Fisher Hillman Studio (321 Ashland Pl)
Price: $15; $7.50 for BAM members
BAMcinématek Screenings
Ran (1985) Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Oct 1 at 7pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
The legendary Japanese director's final film is a blistering, visually spectacular re-imagining of one of the greatest theatrical investigations of political power dynamics, Shakespeare's King Lear.
Conversation and Film
Then and Now: The Gospel at Colonus conversation + screening of Book of Clarence
With Lee Breuer, Sam Butler, and Bob Telson
In conversation with Joseph V. Melillo
Sept 12 at 7pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
Tickets: $15; $7.50 for BAM members
Visual Art
A.M.T.P. (A Mad Tea Party), 2018
Ioanna Pantazopoulou
Wood, stainless steel teapots, artificial palm tree, Rainbow static dusters, crystals, mixed media
Dimensions Variable
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
On view from September 13, 2018 - January 6, 2019
Videos