Event

Chthonic Theater's "The Ship of Fools"

Chthonic Theater, a small performance cooperative in Oakland, will perform a musical odyssey, 'The Ship of Fools,' in five acts. We'll start by work-shopping the first act, 'The Ship of Fools: Not Fit For Society.' This act chronicles the capture by an authoritarian government of the 'radical elements' of society, the fools. Each Fool is introduced in the first act, and we follow their journey through the subsequent four acts. The story is told by three harlequin narrators, who both parody and embody the madness of the story. 'The Ship of Fools' takes its inspiration from the supposed historical context (see Michel Foucault's 'The History of Madness') and the literary trope of the same name. The idea of shipping off the foolish or radical elements of society is an ancient one, and at the same time one quite relevant to the issues of contemporary society, particularly those of immigration and neo-nationalism. We hope through the music and the strange characters of the story to channel both comic absurdity and the danger of social profiling. The show will be unique in that each act will draw from new collaborators, thus contributing to performances with individual dynamics.