Spettacolo Provolone

As a young girl publicly accuses a well-known activist of kidnapping her, international trade developments due to the manipulation of dairy and beef products cause conflict on a local Italian talk show. Theater for the New City presents Spettacolo Provolone: A Surreality-Based Musical Theatre Intervention, conceived and directed by Jack Waters with Peter Cramer and the members of DanceTube.

The show is based on the ancient Greek myth of Io, who, a mortal beloved of Zeus, was transformed by the god into a cow to conceal their liaison from Hera, Zeus’s jealous wife. Hera sees through the ruse and requests the beautiful bovine as a gift that she tortures with a stinging gadfly, driving Io to roam the earth. While some mythological tellings have Io ultimately saved in being placed as a constellation, others find her settling in Egypt, restored to her human form, where she founds the cult of Isis. Similar abductions were to have occurred between the Greeks and the Phoenicians, a culture traced to modern-day Lebanon.

In this production, these mythic elements are transmuted into the form of an Italian variety talk show. A gregarious and vivacious hostess maneuvers the audience and her guests through themes of international trade focusing on the consumption, marketing, contamination and standardization of beef and dairy products.

For group sales, call Kyrce at 212-475-0108.