An Evening of Visky
by András Visky
translated by David Robert Evans and Ailisha O'Sullivan
Fall 2010; Chicago Art Department
devised and directed by Melissa Lorraine and Kevin V. Smith
featuring Daiva Bhandari, Anthony Brunetti, Joel Huff, Melissa Lorraine, Patricia Skarbinski, and Kevin V. Smith
A collage of scenes from the canon of Andras Visky, this promenade style one night only performance devised and co-directed by Lorraine and Smith was performed by an ensemble of six at Chicago Art Department, an art gallery space in Pilsen. The evening of theatrical derring-do included the cacophonous wedding ceremony of The Nameless Man and his Wife as they sat seemingly suspended in air on two wooden chairs affixed to the wall, nearly six feet off the ground, and Bhandari as Bernadette delivering a monologue hanging upside down off of a railing by her knees. The piece followed a poetic arc on the themes of namelessness and the search for identity. An Evening of Visky featured primal dances choreographed by the directors, interspersed with live performances from the world famous Romanian cimbalom virtuoso, Nicolae Ferraru.
Photo Credit: Marianne Bach and Devron Enarson
