FRIGID Nightcap to Present AGE OF EMPIRE?, a Late-Night Variety Show
The show features comedy, drag, burlesque, music, spoken word, and experimental performance.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Jan. 14, 2026
This January, FRIGID Nightcap will present Age of Empire?, a late-night variety show interrogating the return of imperial power exercised openly and without restraint. The performance takes place on Friday, January 30, 2026, at Under St. Marks.
Set against the backdrop of a rapidly unraveling international order, Age of Empire? asks whether today's moment represents a return to empire-or the revelation that empire never ended at all. Through comedy, drag, burlesque, music, spoken word, and experimental performance, the show brings together artists responding to power, legitimacy, violence, resistance, and responsibility in real time.
Performers include Colette, Anamaria Leon, Venus Rose and The Strange Girlzz, with additional artists appearing via Nightcap's OpenStage. Together, the lineup offers work that is furious, ritualistic, surreal, intimate, and sharply funny-reflecting the many ways artists process life under imperial systems.
While rooted in contemporary geopolitics, Age of Empire? is not a lecture or a protest rally. True to FRIGID Nightcap's signature style, the evening balances seriousness with irreverence, inviting audiences into a shared space of reckoning, laughter, and critical reflection.
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