Elia Schneider Returns to La MaMa with JUDGMENT ON A GRAY BEACH, Now thru 3/15

Elia Schneider, formerly of Venezuela, is known for hauntingly visual productions which transcend language with strong imagery and a dreamlike fresco of movement and design. In "Judgment on a Gray Beach," her newest work, themes of exile and totalitarianism are explored by a condemned man--he knows not for what--on a beach populated with ten sheepish antiheroes who agree to obey absurd laws and nonsensical orders. Will he escape or return for punishment?

La MaMa E.T.C., her theatrical home in New York, will present the work's world premiere tonight, March 6 to 15 in its Ellen Stewart Theater, 66 East 4th Street.

Schneider's theatrical productions mostly emerge from ideas derived from Kafka. "Judgment on a Gray Beach" springs from Ms. Schneider's idea for a dream that might have preceded Joseph K's awakening at the beginning of Kafka's novel "The Trial." In her play, a man, named only "K," finds himself on a beach, where he has been arrested for no apparent reason and is about to be informed of his punishment: life in prison or execution. He interacts with a weird collection of characters including a corset woman, a hunger artist, a ballerina who eats meat, a man in a black dress (symbolizing oncoming fascism), an accordion woman and a woman who transforms into a man. K thinks he can appeal to them, but actually he is being judged by them. Even his lawyer has to submit to their absurd, invisible law. What ensues is a nightmare of grotesque, violent and even erotic realities.

In the tradition of Schneider's arresting visuals, the beach is gray, but the sky is very blue, shot with magenta colors, and actors move eerily through exquisite lighting designs. The jury ultimately gives K the option to acquiesce or to commit suicide by drowning and, unable to escape, he will be hanged and buried in the sand. The beachgoers will go on to their routine activities, waiting in darkness for the next person to be condemned.

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