#TRIPTYCH to Run 8/20-23 at HERE

While the SubletSeries @HERE: Co-op is one of downtown theater's finest breeding grounds for new and innovative work, one show on this month's roster breaks new ground in an manner not usually associated with the Co-op: namely, by breaking old ground.

Titled #Triptych, the evening consists of three one-acts unified not by a shared author or theme (indeed the plays span three authors, nations, and centuries), but by common sensibility. Director Joel Soren's production juxtaposes SPIDERS ARE REAL! THEY'RE ALIVE AND THEY HATE YOU!! (a world-premiere comedy by local T. Adamson) with two neglected masterpieces of the early avant-garde. These rarely-performed texts (Phenomena & Existences by Russian proto-absurdist Daniil Kharms and Le Mort de Tintagiles by Belgian Nobel-laureate Maurice Maeterlinck) are being "re-translated" by Adamson for a four night exhibition which draws inspiration from a canon of alternate theatrical traditions. This production is a part of SubletSeries@HERE: Co-op, HERE's curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical support.

"The actors and I are, essentially, running three simultaneous experiments, and we honestly aren't sure how the results will effect an audience," admits director Joel Soren. "First we're transferring Kharms's dreamlike short stories to the stage, and then we're engineering T. Adamson's SPIDERS into this Spielberg-inspired, Hollywood-blockbuster puppet show, and then, to bring us home, we're taking on Maeterlinck's poetry, which is so hauntingly beautiful that he didn't think live actors would be able to perform it. It's difficult, exhilarating work. We wouldn't have it any other way."

Soren adds, "We're not trying to present old plays like somber museum pieces; we want to fill them with the spirit that inspired their creation, something surprising and vital that only live performance can give."

#Triptych will run at 7pm from August 20-23 at HERE, 145 6th Ave. (Enter on Dominick, 1 Block South of Spring). For Tickets & Information: visit here.org or call 212-352-3101. You may also visit the #Triptych website, www.triptych.me.