A World Premiere
CABINET OF WONDERS,
AN IMPOSSIBLE HISORY
Written by Kira Obolensky
Directed by Lisa Jo Epstein
Objects & Cabinets by Irve Dell
Performed by Catharine K. Slusar & Ross Beschler
Sept 29- October 24, 2009
Underground Arts at the Wolf Building
340 N. 12th St.(Btw Callowhill & Vine Sts)
Renowned for concocting wildly imaginative adventures, playwright Kira Obolensky and visual artist Irve Dell of Minneapolis join forces with Gas & Electric Arts, bringing fierce physicality and object theater together for a multi-sensory ride through the magical mesh of fiction and reality that reside in family stories.
Meet Leopold and Christina Carcass. The Enigmatic and charismatic offspring of a family of immigrants, revolutionaries and entertainers. Poised on the edge of eviction, in a free fall from grace, the Carcasses debate salvation strategies and tussle over the plethora of family possessions stashed inside the ancestral cabinets. With impending foreclosure, no destination or relatives in site, they can only take away what they can carry.
Cabinet of Wonders, An Impossible History explores how we define a family – is it a collection of artifacts and stories, memories, genetic information or what the census tells us? In the course of this highly theatrical evening, Leopold and Christina attempt to reconcile their own impossible histories with the story that the cabinet reveals. Caught in an elaborate web of family fairy tales, the characters impress us with a torrent of stories, songs, vaudeville routines and the animation of unlikely heirlooms. Secret drawers pop open unannounced, letting loose lemons and letters, bones and beans, wishbones and rats – and the boundaries between tale and fact, between memoir and fiction burst apart, unleashing shards of truth that insist upon their own new story.
Cabinet of Wonders has been funded by The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, through The Philadelphia Theatre Initiative.
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