As Labor Day weekend looms, multidisciplinary performance arts center PS21 Chatham has planned an internationally themed run of unique events to close its 2022 season during the September 2-4 stretch. Appearing as part of PS21’s free and affordable “PATHWAYS: Blazing Trails to a Sustainable Future” series are events by French artist and playwright Philippe Quesne, French/South Korean theatrical troupe Compagnie Galmae, and French anthropomorphic punk band the Moles.
In Quesne’s ecofuturist play “Farm Fatale” (September 2-3 at 7pm), all birds are extinct and five scarecrows have found themselves out of work. “Taking up the challenge of restoring life on Earth, they archive, investigate, make music, and seek ways to save what can be saved. Environmental knights-errant, the scarecrows contemplate the fragile beauty of our terrestrial ecosystem, and in the process are transformed into dreamers, poets, and activists in a quest for a kinder, less harmful future for the planet.” Tickets are $40 patron; $30 general; $20 PS21 members; $10 farmers, environmentalists, and food justice activists; free fro students and youth.
Compagnie Galmae’s collective performance C’est pas la, C’est par la (It’s Not That Way, It’s This Way) (September 3 at 8:30pm and September 4 at 8pm) “engages audiences with the PS21 landscape, where they join forces to negotiate their relationships to space, place, and one another through a designed environment built specifically for the performance in response to its surroundings. Playful, political, and participatory, the work epitomizes PS21’s PATHWAYS programming.” Tickets are $15 general and free for students and youth.
The Moles are Quesne’s companion piece to “Farm Fatale.” The five giant moles will play a family-friendly rock concert on the PS21 stage (September 4 at 7pm) that “will invite audiences into a parallel universe where there are no humans and no words. In this mysterious underground world, larger-than-life moles are the architects of something between a processional utopian spectacle and a punk rock band.” Tickets are $15.
For tickets and more information, visit PS21 Chatham’s website.
This article appears in August 2022.
