A crumbling, ramshackle building in the southwest corner of Paris was slated for destruction. In the course of its demolition, a hidden section of its moldering basement was discovered. Inside was a cot with long-fouled bedding, a small tin teapot, and some twenty-odd empty absinthe bottles. Scattered on the floor or tacked to the walls of the small room were hundreds of papers covered with drawings, sketches, notes, and fragments of sentences (mostly written in Magyar and French, but with a smattering of English, Polish, and an obscure dialect of erotic Gypsy double-entendres). The workers discovered under the cot a metal strongbox, which they pried open to find a pristine notebook labeled only: “The Exquisite Corpse”. The pages were again covered in a bizarre combination of languages, but fortunately one of the workers, an amateur dramaturg, recognized the format as dramatic writing. She immediately e-mailed her cousin in the US, Elemental Artistic Director Alexander Platt, who, suspecting that this might be the fabled lost work of legendary surrealist Avide Robinatt, asked her to send the notebook to him. At great risk to her professional career, she did so. As a result, Elemental is thrilled to present the World Premiere of Robinatt’s work as the first production of our 2009 season: deca*go*go: The Exquisite Corpse Plays.
Fortunately, Platt and Elemental artist Dave Rabinow, working throughout the fall, were able to translate the great surrealist’s work from Robinatt’s mishmash patois into English. What they discovered were ten short plays, each successive one borne from the last image of the previous. “As best as we can determine, Robinatt’s absinthe intake was such that he would forget about the play as soon as he wrote it,” says Rabinow. “He would write in a frenzy for two or three days, stopping only to indulge his habit. When he finished a play, before collapsing with exhaustion, he would write down the final image of the play on the top of the next page. This was his version of the Exquisite Corpse game so popular among the surrealist artists during the 1920s and 1930s.”
deca*go*go: The Exquisite Corpse Plays demands the unique sensibilities of a skilled director; fortunately, Gamm resident director Peter Sampieri (Taming of the Shrew, The Pillowman) agreed to helm this historic project, and will be joined by Elemental actors Jillian Blevins, Elizabeth Gotauco, Jed Hancock-Brainerd, Michael Locicero, Kelly Nichols, Rebecca Noon, and Chris Rosenquest.
deca*go*go: The Exquisite Corpse Plays will be performed Thursdays – Sundays from January 22 – February 1, 2009 at the Perishable Theatre, 95 Empire St, Providence, RI. Thursday – Saturday curtain is at 8:00 pm; Sundays are at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $15.00. Reservations/information available by calling (401) 447-3001 or going to www.elementaltheatre.org.
