the marquise of o—
(a tabloid story for hypocritical times).
after the short story by heinrich von kleist // co-created by lauren gillis and ted witzel.
the marquise of O— is pregnant, but doesn’t know how it happened. was it the immaculate conception or an ordinary sex crime? she puts an ad in the newspaper to find out.
in this new performance, based on the dubiously comedic and at any rate rather awkward short story by heinrich von kleist, tell-all TV segment inexplicably meets period drama for a multidisciplinary performance excavating the tenuous relationship between truth and appearance, in a tabloid world of bleeped-out events and identities, lots of blushing and falling down, kantian metaphysics, a very important horsey-mask, some barfing, and ‘really great guys’ who just happen to be —.
oh yeah, there’s a “great romance” too, if you’re the sort of person who’s into that.
“one of the big differences between a potential rapist and a potentially dead cat is that you definitely know one way or the other whether the cat is dead once you open the box. ”
adapted & directed by lauren gillis & ted witzel. set concept by camie koo. costumes by amanda wong. lights by c.j. astronomo. sound by christopher stanton. video by wesley mckenzie. production managed by christopher ross & amanda wong. stage managed by aisling gibson. rehearsal stage managed by joey condello. assistant stage managed by jules mendoza. wardrobe managed by sandra mandic. performed by kaleb alexander, rong fu, tyler hagemann, richard partington, g. kyle shields, & eve wylden.
WINNER: 2015 SUMMERWORKS AWARD FOR DESIGN
REVIEWS:
10 things we loved about summerworks 2015 // torontoist
the marquise of o— // NOW MAGAZINE
best of summerworks // torontoist