The AntiGravity Theatre Project presents Yermedea RAW by Erik Ehn, a hybrid puppet and theatre performance braiding the tragic experiences of Euripides’ Medea and Lorca’s Yerma into a single narrative. The AntiGravity Theatre Project will produce the three-venue tour that will Explore, Explode, & EXPOSE our genocides.

The AntiGravity Theatre Project are the current Residence@95 and shows begin on Thursday! 

Thursday, October 9th 8:00pm

Friday, October 10th at 8:00pm

Saturday, October 11th at 3:00pm

Saturday, October 11th at 8:00pm

Sunday, October 12th at 6:00pm

All performances are Pay-What-You-Can but to ensure a seat, reserve tickets online in advance!

EXPLORE: Set in Central America, the play draws inspiration from the horrors of the civil war in El Salvador. The decade-long armed conflict between the military-led government (backed by the United States) and the FMLN (a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups) left the country and its indigenous population in ruins. Centuries of exploitation have depleted the region of its richest resources, including the mental, spiritual, and psychological life of its people.

EXPLODE: Loosely based on the two literary figures Yerma and Medea, one of whom can’t have children and the other of whom is driven to kill her own, the audience, along with the Nurse and the Bus Driver, are led through a labyrinth of repeating events in what appears to be a waking dream. Yermedea RAW explores the disturbing social and psychological effect on life lived in the midst of genocide, incorporating the ephemeral materials of theatre – sound, light, space, time, movement, gesture, and image – to convey that which cannot be expressed otherwise. Playwright Erik Ehn explains that, “We believe the people have a strong, strong voice, but people aren’t listening; we don’t want to speak for them, we want to stand with them.”

EXPOSE: Director Kym Moore and acclaimed Spanish puppet theatre artist Alejandra Prieto join forces to bring Erik Ehn’s Yermedea to life in RAW form. The play will tour three venues starting in October with performances at the 95 Empire Black Box Theater in Providence from October 11 th-14th, the Factory Theatre in Boston from October 27th-28th, and La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in New York City on November 11th and 17th as part of Ehn’s commemorative play-cycle Soulographie: Our Genocides.

In addition to touring, Yermedea RAW will teach free workshops in Providence Public Schools, community organizations and 95 Empire’s School@95. Using applied theatre to actively engage participants in the history of genocide around the world, Yermedea’s education outreach efforts will engage communities that might not otherwise attend live theatre performances. The AntiGravity Theatre Project seeks to move its work beyond the stage and into direct dialogue with the public.

Yermedea RAW: explore, Explode, & EXPOSE our genocides.

The AntiGravity Theatre Project is a Providence-based theatre cooperative dedicated to multi-dimensional, dramaturgically alert, highly visual performance free from sociopolitical confines and the force of gravity. Founded by Kym Moore and Michael Williams, the collective seeks to produce and support performance that traverses boundaries and thumps with a beating heart.
http://theantigravityproject.wordpress.com