New York City
Odd, but true: American companies operate large phone service centers in Bangalore, India, hiring south Asian natives to adopt “typical American” identities, often based on TV sitcoms, and “pass” as Americans when talking with callers half a world away. Deftly transporting audiences from New York to London to Bangalore against this highly entertaining metaphor, Alladeen blends live theater, high-tech video, electronic music and spectacle in a brilliant exploration of how cultures borrow, steal and reinterpret each other’s icons and images in this global economy. Witty, poignant and provocative, Alladeen is a joint creation of NYC experimental theater company The Builders Association and London new media-performance collective, motiroti.