Ritual Cabaret ART BROTHEL Comes to Coney Island USA in March

International Culture Lab (ICL) and Coney Island USA will present the debut of "Ritual Cabaret Art Brothel," an immersive theater experience set to run March 15th to 17th, 2024.

At the heart of this provocative production lies Jean Genet's timeless play, "The Balcony," renowned for its exploration of power dynamics, patriarchy, identity, and illusion within the context of a brothel. Drawing inspiration from Genet's masterpiece, "Ritual Cabaret Art Brothel" ventures into the intricate interplay between reality and fantasy while exploring the theatrical nature of politics and the masks worn by individuals in society.

Led by ICL Artistic Directors Nick Fracaro and Gabriele Schafer, an international ensemble comprised of 20+ dancers, performance artists, actors, musicians, and visual artists has crafted an original evening of theater and art. Genet's themes are brought vividly to life as characters in "Madame Irma's House of Illusions" present an immersive experience within the expansive CIUSA facility, including the Sideshow Stage, the Freak Bar, the Museum, and the Annex, blurring the boundaries between performer and audience.

Beyond the mainstage performances, the ensemble is constructing performance/art installations or "brothel rooms," where each performer embodies a persona that creatively explores their shadow self. Audiences are invited to peer into the fantasies of "Madame Irma's working girls."

Moreover, these personas have crafted art objects and services offered one-on-one to individual theatergoers, creating an immersive encounter where the audience becomes both client and voyeur, reflecting on the commodification of art and identity in contemporary society. See ritualcabaret.org for details.

"Ritual Cabaret Art Brothel" takes Genet's profound observations and translates them for a modern audience navigating a landscape marked by misinformation, alternative realities, challenges to stereotypes of gender and power, meticulously crafted social media and dating app profiles... As Madame Irma herself declares, "You must now go home, where everything - you can be quite sure - will be falser than here."