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Home News by Category General Updates A (radically condensed and expanded) Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (after David Foster Wa

A (radically condensed and expanded) Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (after David Foster Wa

Tuesday, 20 March 2012 01:28 General Updates

UPDATE 11/4/12 Joe Winkler's review at Vol 1. Brooklyn.

27/3:  Charles Isherwood's New York Times review, Volleys of Words From a Writer of No Brevity: David Foster Wallace Inspires Piece at Chocolate Factory. [25/3/12]

From March 22nd - April 7th 2012 at The Chocolate Factory Theatre, Daniel Fish's - A (radically condensed and expanded) SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING I'LL NEVER DO AGAIN (after David Foster Wallace):

Drawing exclusively from audio recordings of David Foster Wallace (readings he gave of his short fiction, essays, and an extensive interview he did for German television), director Daniel Fish and an ensemble of 5 actors seek to re-create the amazing presence Wallace brought to everything he wrote about, be it professional tennis, a boy's thirteenth birthday, or America's obsession with entertainment. Individual listening devices serve as functioning props, delivering the text live to the actors in performance. The selection, order, and tempo of the recordings are mixed live. Wallace is not a character in the piece. Rather, his work as translated by the performers is like the garment of a dear, dead friend: an artifact that simultaneously and dramatically evokes his presence and his absence, asking us: How present can we be? How generous in the way we experience the cacophony of our world?

Produced with the permission of the David Foster Wallace Literary Trust. Developed in residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and University of Rochester International Theatre Program.

UPDATE 11/4/12 Joe Winkler's review at Vol 1. Brooklyn.

27/3:  Charles Isherwood's New York Times review, Volleys of Words From a Writer of No Brevity: David Foster Wallace Inspires Piece at Chocolate Factory. [25/3/12]

From March 22nd - April 7th 2012 at The Chocolate Factory Theatre, Daniel Fish's - A (radically condensed and expanded) SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING I'LL NEVER DO AGAIN (after David Foster Wallace):

Drawing exclusively from audio recordings of David Foster Wallace (readings he gave of his short fiction, essays, and an extensive interview he did for German television), director Daniel Fish and an ensemble of 5 actors seek to re-create the amazing presence Wallace brought to everything he wrote about, be it professional tennis, a boy's thirteenth birthday, or America's obsession with entertainment. Individual listening devices serve as functioning props, delivering the text live to the actors in performance. The selection, order, and tempo of the recordings are mixed live. Wallace is not a character in the piece. Rather, his work as translated by the performers is like the garment of a dear, dead friend: an artifact that simultaneously and dramatically evokes his presence and his absence, asking us: How present can we be? How generous in the way we experience the cacophony of our world?

Produced with the permission of the David Foster Wallace Literary Trust. Developed in residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center and University of Rochester International Theatre Program.

More about Daniel Fish's work from the New York Times, When the Voice in Your Head Just Keeps Talking:

It was only a matter of time until one of these fans decided to take that sentiment and run with it. Meet Daniel Fish. On Thursday this director’s new creation, “A (radically condensed and expanded) SUPPOSEDLY FUN THING I’LL NEVER DO AGAIN (after David Foster Wallace)” will open at the interdisciplinary Chocolate Factory theater in Long Island City, Queens. This is no adaptation or biopic: the script, which changes every performance, as manipulated by Mr. Fish, is Wallace’s voice itself, reading his work and giving interviews. But audiences never hear that voice directly: instead it pours, literally, into the heads of the five performers, who labor mightily to channel word for word the relentless rush streaming into their headphones. (Wallace would no doubt have recognized this kind of contemporary theater tactic; you can imagine him giving it the “po-mo” label.)
“It’s really physical,” said Jenny Seastone Stern, one of the performers (and, she added, a “pretty obsessive” Wallace fan). “You’re not trying to interpret anything he’s saying in his words, you’re trying to let it come through you. It’s pretty incredible the power his voice has — his words and his actual voice.”

 

 

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 11 April 2012 21:29  

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