This is Real

Target Margin Theater presents This is Real, inspired by the work of Jean Genet. Created by 2025 Obie Award-winning director David Herskovits and a cohort of artists, This is Real brings the transgressive spirit of Genet to life for America in 2026. This new work features Genet’s obsessions: power, sex, and revolution. Genet was a thief, drifter, prostitute, who wrote from prison; his work affronted convention and challenged audiences to question their own lives. We admire Genet’s unflinching honesty in confronting power. He does not judge. He is never prim or pious. Above all, Genet is committed to representing the outsiders of our world, the COUNTERCULTURE, MISFITS, LOSERS, and CRIMINALS. These are Genet’s heroes. THIS IS REAL asks our audience to consider these degenerates anew. What is the beauty and wisdom of the outsider? Aren’t we, all of us, outsiders in our own ways?