EgoPo Classic Theatre Presents ARTAUD UNBOUND, 2/16-21

EgoPo Classic Theater is pleased to bring the World Premiere of Artaud Unbound to The Latvian Society performance space. Artaud Unbound presents Philadelphia with the first cross -production between EgoPo Classic Theater and Brat Productions and is directed and conceived by Lane Savadove, Brenna Geffers, Mat Wright and Michael Alltop. Featuring the most exciting emerging actors of the avant-garde scene, Artaud Unbound has a limited engagement, running February 16 through February 21. Press opening is Wednesday, February 16 at 8pm. 

EgoPo Classic Theater invites you to an event unlike any other this theatrical season. The Latvian Society performance space has been transformed into a candle-lit gothic parlor. Sit at the draped cabaret tables, sip red wine and nibble on French hors d'œuvres as the lights dim and the never-before-seen works of Antonin Artaud come to life. With world première adaptations of Artaud's silent films, radios scenarios and manifestos, this will be a performance to remember- whether you are a theater goer, film aficionado or a just lover of the unique and the unusual.

Antonin Artaud was a French poet and theatrical philosopher who created the discipline of the Theater of Cruelty- which denied accepted artistic forms and celebrated the honest, cosmic chaos of life. Seeking to destroy the falsity of art and its distant relationship to the spectator, the Theater of Cruelty seeks to hurl the audience into the fray, engaging audiences on an instinctive rather than sentimental level. Artaud Unbound comes as the middle of Egopo's year long celebration this avant-garde style with the Theatre Of Cruelty Festival.

Artuad Unbound also offers a unique opportunity to see the offspring of Philadelphia's two most fiercely imaginative theater companies, Brat Productions and EgoPo. With both companies leading Philadelphia's theater scene in bold, wholly unique and often site specific work, EgoPo and Brat's first collaboration is sure to be unlike anything else on the Philadelphia stages this season. Be prepared for a wide variety audiences members, with Brat's punkrock audiences members raising a glass with EgoPo avante-garde craving savants.

Artaud Unbound will feature four works based on the writings of Artaud. From his many manifestos, radios scenarios, plays and silent films, directors Savadove, Geffers, Wright and Alltop have created newly imagined mosaics of Artaud's violent and seductive outlook. The pieces combine in a flowing night of performance that draws the curtains up on a proscenium only to literally rip them down as performers spill out into the space.  Serial-killing professors, lunatic bride-grooms, dead-eyed mothers and the infamous spurt of blood dance macabre amongst the audience as live music mournfully intermingles with the crackling recordings of Artaud's own voice, haunting from over 60 years ago.

With intimate cabaret seating and wine and light fare available throughout the live musical and theatrical performances, EgoPo is pleased to create another signature performance that turns theater into an event.

Artaud Unbound's programming includes:

Antonin Artaud wrote a half-dozen film scenarios that have never before been seen or produced.   These little known scenarios give us a rare glimpse into Artaud's art, and though often overlooked, are rich examples of surrealism and expressionism.   The innovative approach to this jewel of a text is brought to life by directly staging the beautiful and elegant film narrative.   The result is a world created and experienced by multiple storytellers simultaneously.  The style of a gothic silent movie is used to tell the story of a medical school professor and his secret occult life. Adapted by Tom Sellar, directed by Lane Savadove, featuring Ed Swidey, Cindy Spitko and Rachel O'Hanlon Rodriguez.

An unknown man waits for a woman who does not arrive. The local authorities, pimps, harlots and some very dangerous butchers lay ready in The Shadows. Or not.  Artaud's never-produced film scenario brings forth the anxiety of domestication in a surprising new retelling. Directed by Brenna Geffers featuring David Blatt and Megan Hoke.

In 1947, rendered toothless and haggard by years of electroshock therapy, Antonin Artaud recorded what would become his final remarks on the life-long investigation he had waged into the roots of human suffering.  It was an investigation that went far beyond what words, mythologies and metaphor could describe.  This recording, banned for years by the French media, is used as source material in an explosive new production that seeks to explore the beauty in the truths Artaud uncovered just months before his premature death in 1948. Directed by Mat Wright featuring Nancy Ellis, LJ Norelli and Cindy Spitko.

Antonin Artaud wrote "The Spurt of Blood" in 1926, when he was 30 years old. It was never produced in his lifetime. For the next 20 years he composed some of the most challenging and incendiary essays ever written about theater. "Manifesto and The Spurt of Blood" merges the ideas and dramatic writing of an avant-garde master into a performance focused on intense vocal and physical work, surrealist images, and storytelling that puts the audience in the middle of the action.  Directed by Michael Alltop featuring David Blatt, Megan Hoke, Rachel O'Hanlon-Rodriguez, Kristen O'Rourke, Ed Swidey and Michael Alltop.