“Joey Merlo’s On Set with Theda Bara, an eerie seance-play performed by David Greenspan, who channels multitudes.” – Helen Shaw
On Set with Theda in Print in The New Yorker
Press
Faust (The Broken Show) in The New Yorker
“Dyer is intent on a kind of holy failure: he runs technical cues from a cell phone, which he hands to the audience, encouraging them to whack away at the controls, and he tries to invoke a supernatural power by painting a pentacle, an effort that collapses mid-ritual. Is he talking metaphorically about success here? Is the Devil not taking his calls? Yes and yes.”
Read Helen Shaw’s full review of Faust (The Broken Show) in The New Yorker
Room Room Room… in New York Magazine / Vulture
“Room, Room, Room, in the many Mansions of eternal glory for Thee and for everyone is part concert, part queer church service, part rave, and all big, tender, welcoming energy.”
David Greenspan Will Play 4 Characters in On Set With Theda Bara in Brooklyn
“On Set with Theda Bara uses the mythology of the silent film star and anti-hero Theda Bara as a metaphor for queerness,” says playwright Merlo. “I’m a lyrical playwright who loves the campy, surreal, and melodramatic. My plays explore the cracks between the boundaries of what’s ‘real’ and what isn’t—by fusing the two, I attempt to locate my own existence within the realm of the fantastic. Theda Bara was written in a fever-dream state, literally, as I was very sick at the time and mostly bedridden. From that state, I used a cinematically imagistic narrative to create a play that transcends the traditional theatrical experience and invites a collaboration between audience, performer, and text.”
Bent Duo: Embodying Queer Sonics
“Bent Duo unsettles traditional notions of music making; nothing is taken at face (or ear) value. They shift the sonic field through what they call their “radical faerie dance,” communicating queer bodies in motion. What was under the surface becomes legible, and the more audible these queer sonics become.”
Read John P. Hastings full feature on Bent Duo on Brooklyn Rail.
An Experimental Master Gets His Due Onstage in New York
“Anthony Braxton’s music is difficult to program even among forward-thinking institutions. Leave it to the scrappy companies to get the work done.”
Make “Room, Room, Room” In Your Heart For the Public Universal Friend
“Room, Room, Room delves into the end of the world, expanding definitions of gender identity and what it means to create a utopian society. It also contemplates, death. “
Hyperfantasia at The Brick Theater
“Our existence is an elaborate joke: a stroke of dumb luck, a glint in the universe’s eye. What better way to acknowledge that fact than through a psychedelic cabaret, guided by the blind prophet of the Underworld themself? Part musical and part otherworldly burlesque, Hyperfantasia served the wild, the wonderful, and everything in between.”
HOUSECONCERT IS THE BEST AND WORST KIND OF PARTY, ALL HAPPENING AT ONCE
“Experimental company Object Collection has transformed The Brick into a madhouse of assorted knickknacks, like six different living rooms all happening at once.”
Object Collection’s Automatic Writing in Brooklyn Rail
“At its core, Automatic Writing is a kind of ritual magic rendered on magnetic tape. Imbued with a sense of occult-like mysticism, it transforms sound and language into a surrealist psychological space.”
Events Review: There’s Kool-Aid in the Water Cooler
“Bailey Williams’s comedy is a sharp-toothed, sometimes bewildering satire of all-consuming workplace culture.”
Read Lauren Collins-Hughes full review on the New York Times.
A GAY ROAD TRIP COMES TO THE BRICK IN BROOKLYN
“The show is going to be zippy, moving, and a lot of fun,” McEntee says. “Cam is such a beguiling presence, so audiences can expect a magnetic performance as he takes us on the road but also on a journey of self-discovery — a path that’s anything but straight, which is to say it’s going to be a gay ole time.”
The Ben Shapiro Project and Our bodies like dams
Exponential Festival; presented at The Brick; “Shapiro” created by Ella Davidson, “Dams” created by Sarah Finn
“The Ben Shapiro Project, which Davidson co-directed with Paul Levine, smartly explores the maddening traps set by well-dressed trolls like Shapiro. Ignoring them doesn’t work; but mocking them, Davidson notes, isn’t really effective either.”
Read Joey Sims full reviews of The Ben Shapiro Project and Our bodies like dams on his Substack.
A NEW PLAY CENTERING ASIAN AMERICAN ASSIMILATION COMES TO THE BRICK
“Hillary Gao’s new play, would you set the table if I asked you to?, considers the cost of assimilation through a uniquely theatrical and culturally specific lens. Featuring an intergenerational cast of all Asian actors…as Hillary says, ‘This play is not setting out to solve assimilation or impart any broader insights into the Asian American experience.’”
Read Billy McEntee’s full interview with Hillary Gao on Greenpointers.
Events World Premiere At The Brick Investigates Productivity Culture And Grief
“The play challenges the idea of productivity culture and investigates the power of grief – alternating between “wild hilarity and quiet devastation.” Williams wrote Events at the height of the pandemic after the sudden loss of a friend.”