ROUGE SALON: ABSURD TRUE TALES at Caveat

Rouge Salon is pleased to offer absurd tales for absurd times; an evening of stories featuring shipwrecks, live burials, and vegetables responsible for continental conquests. Our speakers dare to stare absurdity in the face for the purposes of entertainment and enlightenment.

OUR STORIES AND SPEAKERS

Maryellen De Vivo presents: I'M NOT YET DEAD! THE VERY VICTORIAN FEAR OF PREMATURE BURIAL The act of being buried alive was a huge problem in the 1800s, at least many thought it was. From "real" cases of too-early interment to the invention of safety coffins, we'll explore the grip Taphophoboia had on those living in the 19th century.

Kathy Odds presents: WRECK OF THE MÉDUSE: BAD LEADERSHIP, WORSE LUCK, AND ONE INFAMOUS RAFT The wreck of the French frigate Méduse in the early 1800s —and the people left to survive on a makeshift raft—is a wild true story of survival, bad leadership, and deep social divides. Our tale zooms in on the people at the center of it, showing the chaos, tough choices, and slow unraveling of everyone involved.

Matthew Codner presents: SEA IS FOR CABBAGE: HOW A HUMBLE HEAD SPURRED EXPLORATION AND SHAPED CIVILIZATION We explore the rise of cabbage as a powerful, history-shaping force; the leafy green that enabled global conquests from Genghis Khan's Eurasian domination to Captain James Cook's Pacific exploration.

Leonard Apeltsin presents: ALBERT CAMUS' ABSURDIST GUIDE TO FINDING MEANING IN OUR CRUEL AND SH*TTY UNIVERSE Poor Sisyphus, once a mighty king, has been sentenced by the Gods to push a boulder up a hill till the end of time. Yet there is hope amidst that hopelessness, according to absurdist thinker Albert Camus. Sisyphus can be happy; by refusing to be broken and embracing his absurd and pointless existence.

Rain Wiegartner presents: GLOBALIZATION COMES IN BOXES From soybeans to missiles, a whole lot of stuff can get packed into shipping containers and sent all around the world. But the design and implementation of containers also changed port logistics, ship designs, and the fortunes of whole cities along the way.