MexicoNOW Festival Presents the US Premiere of Yukio Mishima's HANJO

The South Wing, in association with the méxicoNOW festival, is proud to present HANJO, Yukio Mishima's contemporary Noh play beginning Wednesday, November 24 @ 8:30pm and Friday, November 26-Sunday, November 28 @ 4pm and 8:30pm at the HERE Arts Center (145 6th Ave. between Spring & Broome). Tickets are $15. HERE Members pay $10. Tickets can be purchased through www.smarttix.com or by calling 212.868.4444.

A forlorn performer, Aura, locks herself in a room and decides to abandon life as she awaits her true love's return. A woman named Hannes becomes smitten with Aura, and convinces the romantic to go away with her, but in seclusion. Under Hannes's radar, Aura steals away to the local train station every day to see if her beloved has returned. Hannes discovers her scheme, however, when a local newspaper chronicles Aura's plight. Hannes now must find away to make sure that the lovers never reunite! HANJO demonstrates how tortuous life can be when we have the insatiable desire to possess love. Directed by Kameron Steele, HANJO is an experimental work in Spanish and English, translated from Japanese and adapted by The South Wing, an international theatre company comprised of artists from México, the USA, Argentina and Belgium. The company has worked extensively with visionaries Robert Wilson, Mabou Mines, Guillermo Heras and Tadashi Suzuki. HANJO was named "Play of the Year" for 2003 by Mural Newspaper and received a grant from the 2003-2004 US-México Fund for Culture.

On Wednesday, November 24 (premiere night) there will be a pre-show panel discussion at 5pm about the process of creating this adaptation with Director Kameron Steele, Mexican Dramaturge Jorge Zul de la Cueva, and Belgian Composer Marc Appart. On Friday, November 26 there will be a post show discussion with the members of The South Wing.

The South Wing: Kameron Steele (Director), Ivana Catanese (Actress/Producer), Nathan Guisinger (Actor), Jorge Zul de la Cueva (Dramaturg), Lisette Cuevas (Production Assistant) HANJO Production Team: Anilu Pardo (Actress), Marc Apart (Composer), Gustavo Dominguez (Lighting Designer), Marisela La Grave (Video Designer), Carlos Soto and Maiko Hiou (Costume Designers), Kevin Steele (Production Assistant).

Since 1993, HERE has been one of New York's most prolific producing organizations and today stands at the forefront of the city's presenters of daring new work. As a multi-arts space, HERE encourages a diversity of artistic perspectives and nurtures a collaborative and vibrant community of artists and audiences. HERE develops programming that focuses on multidisciplinary collaborations with the aim of creating original hybrid art and encouraging dialogue between emerging and established artists in all different disciplines.

This South Wing production is made possible by the funds of The National Endowment for the Arts, Contacto Cultural, Arts International/méxicoNow, The University of Guadalajara and Bacardi Rum.