The Escape Artist
Tickets and Information
SHOW INFORMATION
CURRENTLY CLOSED
Opened Apr 15, 2011
Closed Apr 30, 2011
Opened Apr 15, 2011
Closed Apr 30, 2011
Directions & Map
Visit the The Escape Artist website:
http://www.ps122.org
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WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
While rehearsing a theater piece based on the life of the Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio, a stressed-out performer has a catastrophic trapeze accident. While stranded on a gurney in a hospital emergency room for 15 hours with a broken neck (Alice in Wonderland meets The Matrix), he escapes and finds refuge in the images that flood his mind--the sinners and saints, the prostitutes and gods--that populate Caravaggio's paintings.
The Escape Artist contains Spoken Text interspersed with renditions 10 Original Songs (by John Kelly & Carol Lipnik), as well as 2 'covers' (a James Bond theme song and an aria from an opera by Monteverdi); pre-recorded music accompaniment of these songs is the soundtrack for sections of projected Video, and are sung live by Kelly. In the final song of The Escape Artist he accompanies himself on electric guitar.
WHAT ARE CRITICS SAYING?
What are other members saying?
RE:The Escape Artist
The premise of the show did not entice me, as I feared it would be slow and sad. It is neither. Its a musical and visual feast for the senses, frequently funny, and although very touching, not at all sad. The acting, singing, and fantastic use of video imagery kept me riveted throughout the performance. It is a beautiful story about the power of art and artmaking, and how that practice can simultaneously endanger and heal an artist. I would encourage every one I know to see it--it is a very polished piece of theater that would stage just as well in a much more glamorous house.
Reviewed by nancymahl
on Sunday, Apr 24th, 2011
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The paintings of Caravaggio provide the inspiration for John Kelly's sumptuous new multi-media performance piece, The Escape Artist, at P.S. 122. Not only are reproductions of the Italian Renaissance artist's works projected on the three large screens that dominate the stage, but the gorgeously shot filmic imagery displayed also features various performers recreating scenes from some of Caravaggio's most famous paintings.
In the live portion of the performance, Kelly portrays a theater artist who was injured while rehearsing a trapeze technique that he hoped to incorporate into his latest show. This artist may or may not be Kelly himself, although his name does appear on some of the medica[...]