West Coast Premiere of Alex Tatarsky's SAD BOYS IN HARPY LAND Coming to REDCAT

Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT), CalArts’ center for contemporary arts in downtown Los Angeles, will present the west coast premiere of self-proclaimed “experimental clown artist” Alex Tatarsky's Sad Boys in Harpy Land on March 19-21, 2026. Tickets are available here now.

In this unhinged solo performance, Tatarsky ushers audiences through an absurdist hellscape of the mind. Equal parts sad clown, demented cabaret, and extended crisis of meaning, Sad Boys in Harpy Land confronts anguish through humor in a spiraling narrative of artmaking and despair.

Through a series of existential vignettes, Tatarsky fuses autobiographical bones of their own story onto those of equally tormented protagonists from sources including Goethe, Dante, Amiri Baraka, Helen Adams, and Seinfeld. A whirlwind coming-of-age story, Tatarsky presents a highly calibrated mess in a tour-de-force performance that challenges the idea of individual malady, and instead embraces the turbulent maze of shared struggle. 

On March 20, there will be a post-show Q&A with Alex Tatarsky, moderated by Katy Dammers, Deputy Director and Chief Curator, Performing Arts.

Please note: This program contains flashing lights, nudity, loud sounds, and mature content.

About Alex Tatarsky

Alex Tatarsky is a writer and performer who make solo performances in between theater, performance art, comedy and deluded rant, sometimes with songs. Their original shows Americana Psychobabble, Untitled Freakout, Dirt Trip, Sad Boys in Harpy Land, MATERIAL, and Nothing Doing have been presented by venues including Abrons Arts Center, The Kitchen, La Mama, MoMA PS1, Playwrights Horizons, The Whitney Biennial, Under the Radar, and many bars and basements.

Tatarsky is one half of the roving bootleg research duo Shanzhai Lyric and their fictional office Canal Street Research Association. As a curatorial fellow at the Poetry Project, they organized a series on the poetics of rot.