VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

The Menil Collection and Main Street Theater present a One-Night-Only Public Performance of Dario Fo’s One Was Nude and One Wore Tails.  The play will be performed in Menil galleries, against a backdrop of the current Menil exhibition, Maurizio Cattelan. The one-act performance will be followed by an audience discussion with director and cast. Tuesday, June 15, 2010, 7.30 p.m.

The Menil Collection, in collaboration with Main Street Theater, presents “One Was Nude and One Wore Tails,” by Dario Fo, the Nobel-prize winning playwright, director, and performer. Directed by Main Street Theater’s Jonathan Gonzalez, the short, rapid-fire piece will fill a vast room with the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan’s haunting anti-war sculptural work, All. Audience members will surround both actors and art installation.

Drawing from comic traditions as varied as commedia dell’arte, medieval traveling players, and the avant-garde, this signature work by the man known as “the people’s court jester” features street sweepers and other urban characters in a classic, door-slamming farce – though this time the doors are trash-bin lids.

The Main Street Theater cast includes Matt Tramel, Caleb George, David Millstone, Walter Baker, and Kathryn Noser.

A counterpart to Dario Fo, Maurizio Cattelan is known for his playful yet disconcerting use of materials, objects, and actions, and for manipulating their larger contexts and meaning. The artist’s work unleashes critiques on a range of issues, from nationalism and organized religion to art history. This evening’s juxtaposition of solemn art with knockabout farce promises to provide a memorable collaboration – or clash -- of the visual and the performing arts.

ADMISSION TO THE MENIL AND TO THE PERFORMANCE IS FREE, BUT SEATING IS EXTREMELY LIMITED. ADVANCE TICKETS ARE REQUIRED AND WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE MENIL BOOKSTORE STARTING AT NOON ON SATURDAY, JUNE 5th. NO LATE SEATING.