Chatham multidisciplinary arts center PS21 (AKA Performance Spaces for the ٢١st Century) has launched its 2022 summer season schedule, which is happening at its state-of-the-art, open-air pavilion theater and 100 acres of trails and grounds. In keeping with its mission and past programming, PS21’s current, internationally focused summer listings once again contain a revelatory rundown of exceptional-looking events—50 of them—that encompass dance, music, theater, opera, workshops, and content for young people.
First up this month is “Re:Incarnation” by Nigerian dance troupe QDance (June 3-4). “All my work becomes meaningful in the context of time,” explains QDance choreographer Qudus Onikeky. “[West African] Yoruba philosophy believes in reincarnation, which means that there is no distance between the space in which the living exist; the space of the ancestors who’ve passed away; and the space of the unborn, who belong to the spiritual world.
‘Re:Incarnation’ is inspired by these three spaces, which coexist simultaneously.” Israel’s Vertigo Dance Company will appear at PS21 as well, with “One. One & One” (July 28-29), while the Mark Morris Dance Group will perform three pieces (August 6) and 2022 resident troupe Jamal Jackson Dance Company will premiere “846” (August 6).
For the season’s music, the selections are likewise outward-looking and exciting. Montreal based hip-hip collective Vox Sambou’s repertoire fuses traditional Haitian rhythms with Afrobeat, jazz, reggae, and hip-hop (June 17). Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha, whose style draws from their homeland’s folk music and culture, will perform live accompaniment to Alexander Dovzhenko’s 1930 silent film masterpiece Earth, about resistance to Soviets collectivization of Ukrainian farms (August 11). Doug Perkins of the So Percussion ensemble will conduct 36 percussionists in an outdoor performance of composer Michael Gordon’s “Field of Vision” (July 25).
The theatrical fare this summer includes the world premiere of Sylvia Milo, Nathan Davis, and Joanna Kotze’s “I Am the Utterance of My Name: Divining Mary Magdalene” (July 10), which utilizes theater, experimental music, ritual, and biblical, Gnostic, heretical, medieval, and modern sources to essay the first seven apparitions of the Virgin Mary. French director and visual artist Philippe Quesne’s “Farm Fatale” (September 2-3) follows the sole survivors of an environmental collapse—five scarecrows—in their new roles as dreamers, poets, and planetary activists.
South Africa-born playwright Robyn Orlin’s political cabaret work “And so you see…our honorable blue sky and ever enduring sun…can only be consumed slice by slice…” explores Africa’s relationship with the West with scathing humor (September 16). Another residency, this one by the Berkshire Opera Festival, features a new production of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s “Three Decembers” (July 21 and 23).
For a complete listing of all PS21 summer 2022 events and ticket information, visit the center’s website.
PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century
This article appears in June 2022.
