Nov. 12-14, 19-21: “Beowulf” (MIT Theater Arts Building, Cambridge)
The Old English epic tale of “Beowulf” centers around the Geatish hero who triumphs over three iconic monsters, the demon Grendel, Grendel’s vengeful mother, and a fierce, powerful dragon. Directed by Joshua Higgason, the production at MIT is a retelling set in very different circumstances.
The retelling relocates the legend in a “surreal corporate office” where a worker becomes immersed in a dreamy world of shadowy creatures, myth and memory. Outside the original context of early Scandinavia, the reinterpretation “draws on a dark satirical vision of a world ruled by surveillance, paperwork, and malfunctioning systems,” populated with monsters fashioned from copy paper and bankers boxes.
Where’s this all headed? Audience members will watch the line between the office world and the imagination disappear in storylines that try to “make sense of fear and power.”
Nov. 13-14: “Godbody: A Ritual Opera” (The Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge)
“What does it mean to birth a body free of shame?” “Godbody,” a ritual opera, asks the question. The project is an ongoing art exhibit (runs though Nov. 25) that will be punctuated by live performances this weekend. The audience will witness “spiritually charged dance theater” as a kind of celebration of rebirth.
The production, conceived by Diovanna Obafunmilayo Frazier and directed by Martavius Parrish, showcases a joyful melding of hip hop, Afro-Cuban and Yoruba religious ceremony, and queer expression. Thematically, the performance centers around the body, its relationship to the divine and the ways emotions course through it.
Audience members will be invited to participate and create art themselves, using oil pastels to leave markings of their own bodies on a “guestbook” commemorating the performance.
