LIFE AND TIMES – EPISODE 1

An actress thrashes and struggles. She smiles, she bewilders. Her movements are a strange sort of rhythmic gymnastics, and the simple live music accompanying her gestures surprises. Soon there are six people onstage, dressed in grey uniforms, singing along with her the tale of one existence. Based on absurdly disproportionate source material, it is a minutely detailed narrative, a 34-year-old American woman’s life story recounted in 16 hours of telephone calls. The surprising treatment wins over the audience – the unpolished narrative punctuated with digressions and hesitations, set to music and sung in the image of a musical. This ode to the mundane, coupled with a critique of hyper-mediatization and of TV reality stars, is a new form of musical, disconcerting yet also winsome.

With Life and Times – Episode 1, the Nature Theater of Oklahoma, an adventurous New York theatre company, is back at the FTA following its memorable 2009 presentation of Rambo Solo. The new piece relates the childhood (zero to age seven) of Kristin Worrall in a captivating portrait of a generation.

PRODUCED BY NATURE THEATER OF OKLAHOMA + BURGTHEATER WIEN
CREATED AND DIRECTED BYKELLY COPPER + PAVOL LIŠKA
WITH ILAN BACHRACH + GABEL EIBEN + ANNE GRIDLEY + MATTHEW KORAHAIS + JULIE LAMENDOLA + ALISON WEISGALL
FROM A TELEPHONE CONVERSATION WITH KRISTIN WORRALL
ORIGINAL MUSIC ROBERT M. JOHANSON PERFORMED BYDANIEL GOWER + ROBERT M. JOHANSON + KRISTIN WORRALL
SET DESIGN PETER NIGRINI
DRAMATURGY FLORIAN MALZACHER

COPRODUCTIONINTERNATIONALES SOMMERFESTIVAL HAMBURG + KAAITHEATER BRUSSEL + THÉÂTRE DE LA VILLE (PARIS) + INTERNATIONALE KEUZE FESTIVAL ROTTERDAMSE SCHOUWBURG + WEXNER CENTER FOR THE ARTS AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
WITH THE SUPPORT OF MAP FUND + THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION

PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH PLACE DES ARTS

WRITTEN BY ADELINE GENDRON
TRANSLATED BY NEIL KROETSCH

PREMIERED AT BURGTHEATER KASINO, VIENNA, SEPTEMBER 2009