Not everything streaming online during the Lockdown should be silly and fluffy, we still need to be inspired and maybe even shaken up a little. Its an idea very much in the minds of M-34 Theater who have a new production of Frank Kafkas Letter To My Father. They told Queerguru unashamedly that this is a distressing piece about alienation, isolation, and despair. This show is perhaps not for those who — quite understandably — are looking to art for reprieve from these exhausting days and months.
In 1919, an ailing Franz Kafka, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature, wrote a letter to his father. In it he put his anger, his fear, his guilt, his loneliness, his ingratitude, his debt, his despair, his joy, his pride, his confusion, his laughter, his hate, his memory, his shame, his tears, his disgust at everything his father represented and his profound hope that he might one day measure up to such a remarkable man. The letter never reached its destination.
Now, live from quarantine, we are invited to a curious event — part YouTube meltdown, part hidden-camera show, part seance — as M-34 attempt to deliver it at last.
LETTER TO MY FATHER will be performed in a zone monitored by multiple cameras, each of which broadcasts live over the internet. The audience watches via a multiplex interface, allowing each viewer to take their own perspective on the event.
LIVE PERFORMANCES ONLINE February 19 — March 28 Fridays @ 7pm • Sundays @ 3pm Eastern Standard Time Preview performances February 19 & 21 • Opening night February 26 Tickets HERE
An important footnote from the Producers: We believe that theater requires a commitment of energy from its audience. This piece asks for active engagement, uninterrupted time, and audio/visual isolation. This is not a stream to have playing in the background as you scroll through the news. We are attempting to reclaim some of the immediacy of live performance: that feeling of sitting in a dark room as something unusual and unique happens to you and you alone.
