Dael Orlandersmith’s Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance to Make New York Premiere at Rattlestick Theater

Monologuist Dael Orlandersmith will perform her new solo play, Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance this coming February 2024 as part of the 2023-24 season at Rattlestick Theater. Exact dates have not been announced.

According to an official description of Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance, “In conversation with Dante’s Divine Comedy, we meet Virgil in the middle of an ordinary life. With their father’s passing, Virgil reframes death and finds the extraordinary they’ve been searching for.”

Orlandersmith is one of the most celebrated solo performers in the American theater, and was last seen at Rattlestick in 2018’s Until the Flood, about the aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri. TheaterMania’s review raved that it, “offers a heartrending demonstration of the potential of art to reach across cultural boundaries and generate the kind of empathy that could potentially help bring us all closer together.”

Neel Keller directs the production, which is being presented in partnership with Merrimack Repertory Theater.