Experiments 19: Voyages
Written by Lonely Christopher
Directed by Alexandra Zelman-Doring
Voyages, the new play by Lonely Christopher, is about the short life of Modernist poet Hart Crane as he attempts to create a “mystic synthesis” of American culture in his writing while dealing with debilitating familial psychodrama and the dangers of loving men in a homophobic society. Careening through the Prohibition years in Cleveland, New York City, Hollywood, and the Gulf of Mexico, the drunken author challenges and attempts to transcend the moral order of his time and place. Surviving privation, humiliation, and the wages of vagabondage, Hart Crane negotiates the foibles and prejudices of literary friends and runs into the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Malcolm Cowley, Isadora Duncan, Jean Toomer, and Ramon Navarro. Openly queer and with a penchant for sailors, Crane’s sex life is as scandalous and radical as his baroque, mythical, and yet strongly modern American verse. Exhaustively researched and full of linguistic pyrotechnics, Voyages animates the world of Hart Crane as never before. Join the poet on his voyage to discover Atlantis!
Starring
Gore Abrams as Hart Crane
Featuring
Sprague Theobald
Jessica Weinstein
Roland Sands
Bill Weeden
Liam Torres
Brooks Borden
Asia Boostani
Leo DeFriend
& Stephen Ira as a Young Hustler
Experiments Play Reading Series
For the 23rd season of La MaMa Experiments we will focus on theatrical works in progress addressing mental health issues. No one is more familiar with the need to create greater access to mental healthcare than our New York audience, who come face to face with this crisis on a daily basis. After 3 years of a global pandemic, all of us are feeling the upsurge of anxiety and depression, but these trends have been on the rise long before Covid-19. The works this season shed light on important, personal stories and deal with this subject matter in many different and unique ways. From tongue in cheek comedies to absurdist tragedies, Experiments hopes to create a season that will destigmaify, enlighten and, yes, even entertain.