Gemini CollisionWorks Production Of BLOOD ON THE CATS NECK Comes To The Brick 8/8-29

The Brick Theater, Inc. presents a Gemini CollisionWorks production of Blood on the Cat's Neck by Rainer Werner Fassbinder / designed and directed by Ian W. Hill

"Phoebe Zeitgeist has been sent to the Earth from a distant star to write an eyewitness account of Human Democracy. But Phoebe Zeitgeist has difficulty, because although she has learned the words, she doesn't understand Human Language . . ."

Oh, poor Phoebe . . . dropped, half-naked, into a cocktail party with no language to call her own. How will she possibly get by? Maybe if she listens to the people attending this party - the Teacher, the Policeman, the Soldier, the Gigolo, the Young Girl, the Mistress, the Butcher, and the Model, their hostess - she might learn something about Human Language, and Human Democracy. Nope, that doesn't seem to be working. Maybe if she puts the partygoers through a series of scenes in which they playact typical Human interactions she will understand? Nope. Maybe if she joins the party and tries to fake it with what she's learned? Nope. It appears that Phoebe Zeitgeist will have to take a more direct route, right into the jugular vein, to suck what she needs to know about Human Language out of these oh-so-polite celebrants . . .

Also known as Marilyn Monroe vs. The Vampires, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1971 play Blood on the Cat's Neck is a savage satire of bourgeois manners and the bourgeois Comedy of Manners. One of Fassbinder's antiteater works, it suggests that knowledge of a human being - any human being - through language alone is impossible, and that perhaps theatre itself is pointless as a means of actually communicating real ideas about people. A madcap, hysterical farce of high and low humor that features horrible physical and psychic violence, cruelty, murder, unscrupulous business dealings, and lots and LOTS of blood. Yes, LOTS and LOTS of blood.

Director/designer Ian W. Hill has created 59 stage productions since 1997 with his company Gemini CollisionWorks, including works by Vaclav Havel, Richard Foreman, T.S. Eliot, Clive Barker, Mac Wellman, Ronald Tavel, Jeff Goode, Mark Spitz, and Edward D. Wood, Jr., as well as several original plays. As a designer (light, sound, projections, sets) and technical/artistic consultant he has worked with many other stage artists and theatres for the past 20 years, and he is currently the technical director of The Brick. He will also be presenting three other plays in rep with Blood on the Cat's Neck in August at The Brick: George Bataille's Bathrobe by Richard Foreman, A Little Piece of the Sun by Daniel McKleinfeld, and Sacrificial Offerings by David Finkelstein and Ian W. Hill.

The cast of this production is
Gyda Arber, Eric C. Bailey*, Danny Bowes, V. Orion Delwaterman, Rasheed Hinds,
Toya Lillard, Samantha Mason, Amy Overman, Roger Nasser, Shelley Ray*

at
The Brick -- 575 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211 -- www.bricktheater.com
½ a block from the Lorimer stop of the L Train / Metropolitan-Grand stop of the G Train
August 9, 14, 19, 22, 25 and 26 at 8.00 pm; August 8, 15, and 29 at 4.00 pm

approximately 90 minutes long
All tickets: $15.00
Tickets available at the door or through theatermania.com (212-352-3101 or toll-free: 1-866-811-4111)

* Appears Courtesy of Actors Equity Association

 

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