La MaMa and Untitled Theater Company No. 61 Present Iphigenia in Aulis Beginning 2/14

Featuring music of downtown indie rocker Aldo Perez (from the band The Renaldo The Ensemble,) and the work of graphic novelist, Eric Shanower (author of the award-winning Age of Bronze series), Edward Einhorn's new adaptation reexamines Euripides' play about democracy versus ochlocracy (mob rule) and the role of religion in popular uprisings, subjects made particularly relevant by Arab Spring.

Masks by Jane Stein are both worn and "puppeteered" as a second self, separating the characters from their classic archetypes and reveling more basic human emotions beneath. Deliberately anachronistic, the production mixes the contemporary with the classical and uses pop iconography of comics to examine the timeless, philosophical elements of the myth.

La MaMa is a remarkable arts institution with a worldwide reputation for producing daring work in theater, dance, performance art, and music. Founded in 1961 by theater pioneer and legend, Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has produced and presented more than 3,200 theatrical productions to date and is a vital part of the fabric of cultural life in New York City and around the world.

Untitled Theater Company #61 is a Theater of Ideas: scientific, political, philosophical, and above all theatrical, known particularly for their recent series of science fiction adaptations at 3LD Art & Technology Center and their extensive work in collaboration with Václav Havel. Other work includes the Ionesco Festival, the NEUROfest, the Off-Broadway production of Fairy Tales of the Absurd, and New York premiere of Israeli playwright Motti Lerner's Pangs of the Messiah. This is the twentieth anniversary season of the theater company.

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