Theater News

HERE Extends 20th Anniversary Revival of Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique

The show takes place in a 1,000-gallon water tank.

Editorial Staff
Off-Broadway
A scene from Symphonie Fantastique, created, designed, and directed by Basil Twist, at HERE.
A scene from Symphonie Fantastique, created, designed, and directed by Basil Twist, at HERE.
(© Richard Termine)

Performer and puppeteer Basil Twist's acclaimed Symphonie Fantastique has been extended through July 15 at HERE. This is the work's 20th anniversary production.

HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program's production of Symphonie Fantastique returns to its original home at HERE, where the groundbreaking work first premiered in 1998, to celebrate the theater's 25th anniversary season. The show takes place in a 1,000-gallon water tank, in which five unseen puppeteers swirl countless pieces of fabrics, feathers, fishing lures, flashlights, glitter, dyes, plastic, vinyl, and bubbles in all shapes and sizes, creating a dreamlike world of imagination and surrealistic storytelling.

Symphonie Fantastique is set to the 1830 score by composer Hector Berlioz, and this engagement marks the first time in New York City that the work will be performed to live piano accompaniment, using the Franz Liszt piano transcription. At the piano is Christopher O'Riley, who has been a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and San Francisco Symphony.