Mysteries and Smaller Pieces

As an epilog to the six-month run of The Brig, The Living Theatre presents Mysteries and Smaller Pieces, a recreation of the 1964 collective creation that changed theatrical history. Judith Malina directs.

Created directly after the company had been playing The Brig for several years, Mysteries begins with a reprise of elements of The Brig: a man at attention, soldiers marching in unison and then moves into a series of rituals designed to liberate the performers and audience. The first play to be presented on the world’s major stages without fictional characters, plot, scenery or costumes, the virtually wordless composition redefines the nature of theater as pure communication between performers and between performers and audience.

Relying on nonverbal sounds and improvised actions, Mysteries invokes the Dionysian sources of the drama. The performing company brings together founder Judith Malina with members who have worked for decades together and the new, young members who have just arrived.