They had me at "a theatrical sonata of dreams and madness." I'll be there on the 6th.
Fratellanza presents
String Up the Moon
September 5-8: PuppetART Theater (tickets here)
Preview September 5
September 14: Michigan Legacy Art Park - Frohlich Amphitheater
September 20-21: Jam Handy - Detroit Design Festival (tickets here)
September 21: Special performance with Russian tea afterparty at the Jam Handy: $25
After last summer’s sold-out show The Mute Quire, Fratellanza creates a new production for September 2013. String Up the Moon looks into the human heart and finds two men wrought by desire. A lowly government clerk lusts up the ladder of the Russian civil service. A brilliant musician murders his friend and idol, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and justifies his act on cosmic grounds. These tales meet to form a theatrical sonata of dreams and madness.
Fratellanza’s ensemble from across the arts adapts two Russian tales, “The Diary of a Madman” by Nikolai Gogol and Aleksandr Pushkin’s “Mozart and Salieri.” Three performers translate the poetry and movement of Gogol and Pushkin. Jazz musician Michael Malis composes an original score. All performed in a playground world created by visual artist Reed Esslinger.
String Up the Moon will premiere at PuppetART Theatre in Detroit, September 5-8. The show then travels to northern Michigan for outdoor performances September 12-14. Finally, the show returns to Detroit as a unique theatrical component of the 2013 Detroit Design Festival, playing at the historic Jam Handy building on September 20 and 21. Following the performance on Saturday, September 21, as a special Design Festival event, there will be a late-night Russian Tea for audience and artists to talk and drink, as Russian animation streams on the walls.