Kaos

Oh NYTW....always keeping things fresh. The latest production called Kaos is performed entirely in Italian. It's an adaptation of a 1984 Italian film of the same name - based around four separate stories that are interweaved into the performance throughout different times.

Again, I'm going to be a bit lazy because this show's pretty difficult to explain, but here's what the NYTW blurb has to say about it: "Taking its title from the Sicilian hamlet where novelist, dramatist and short story writer Luigi Pirandello was born, KAOS blends live music, text and dance to reflect on the mysteries of Sicily at the dawn of the twentieth century, portraying common people heavily affected by poverty, violent political unrest and social change.

Kaos is inspired by four stories by Pirandello, also featured in the Taviani Brothers’ 1984 film. In L'altro figlio (The Other Son), a lonely mother is desperate to regain contact with her children in America, but unable to face her child by rape who lives just down the road. The new bride in Mal di luna (Moon Sickness) discovers that her husband goes mad with each full moon, causing her to seek solace with an old suitor. In Requiem, a clan of peasants fights a baron for the right to have a cemetery on the land they have cultivated for generations. And in Colloqui con i personaggi (A Talk with the Characters), a man converses with his late mother as he tries to make sense of the darkness that pervades his stories."

Right, so there you have the plot..but know that the show is less focused on plot than on being visually stylized. It's quite beautiful to look at and the minimalist set works nicely. I'd say this is the first work of its kind that I've been exposed to. I consider it more of a theatrical event than a play really. Perhaps this is Martha Clarke's style - I haven't seen work by her before - but am curious to see what she bring forth in the future. Again, glad to see NYTW experimenting a bit...and very much looking forward to their January production of Alan Ball's new play!!