Plays for the Poor Theatre

cellarDoor Berlin presents Howard Brenton’s Plays for the Poor Theatre. Comprised of two one-act plays, Gum and Goo and Christie in Love, these fast, hard, dirty pieces of theatre are intended to disturb and challenge an audience.

The program opens with Gum and Goo, which tells the story of a young autistic girl whose inner life includes violently skewed images of typical childhood situations and interactions. She is also guided by two vague
figures, Gum and Goo, who create, encourage and embody her sickness. Through sequences of stylized gesture and dream-like movements set against lush soundscapes, audiences can see and understand the seething depth beneath the mysteriously glassy surface of autism.

The interrogation of John Reginald Halliday Christie, Notting Hill’s most
notorious Lady Killer, is at the center of Brenton’s Christie in Love.
cellarDoor’s treatment of the piece meticulously underscores the moral
dynamic between the Inspector responsible for Christie’s incarceration, and
Christie himself. As Christie’s ghoulish entrance gives way to glimmers of
real sensuality and love, the Inspector’s façade of Victorian righteousness
dissolves into a panting, wide-eyed hunger to observe exactly those
perversions that gnaw at the very core of human comprehension.

This performance is presented as part of the New York International Fringe Festival.

Performance Schedule:
Saturday, August 21 @ 1:45 pm
Tuesday, August 24 @ 3:00 pm
Thursday, August 26 @ 8:30 pm
Saturday, August 28 @ 5:00 pm
Sunday, August 29 @ 4:30 pm