Stolen Chair in “Commedia dell’ Artemisia”

In a daring attempt to rival Moliere’s greatest work and single-handedly revive the tradition of Commedia dell’Arte, Stolen Chair performs its Commedia dell’Artemisia, a masked farce in rhyming couplets, satirizing the controversial trial of Artemisia Gentileschi for the rape of Italian Renaissance painter Artemisia Gentileschi. As the teenage virtuosa, Artemisia tries to escape the clutches of her miserly father; she becomes entwined with Agostino Tassi, a master painter and criminal who would rather screw than woo. Transforming these complex historical figures into commedia stock characters, Stolen Chair irreverently eviscerates history, hypocrisy, rape, romance, art and artifice.

Commedia dell’Artemisia is presented as part of the Collective: Unconscious Underground Zero festival.