Remembering and Forgetting in Ecstacy | a waterfable, a Drama with Live Music
Thick House (1695 18th St. San Francisco, CA 94102)
- Full Price:
- $10.00 - $25.00
- Our Price:
- FREE - $12.50*
* Additional fees apply.
All offers for Ecstacy | a waterfable have expired.
The last date listed for Ecstacy | a waterfable was Sunday August 16, 2009 / 5:00pm.
Currently at Thick House:
Working-Class British Drama A Taste of Honey
- Full Price:
- $25.00
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- FREE - $10.00
Set in 1960s Manchester, England, this poignant and comic play tells the story of Jo, a shy 17-year-old chafing against the constraints of her life in a working-class slum and the demands of her selfish, irresponsible mother, Helen. Helen soon deserts her daughter for a lover, but the tenacious Jo navigates romance, heartbreak, and poverty, never losing her sense of humor and optimism. Shelagh Delaney's first play was considered controversial in its time for its racial and sexual themes, but its powerful evocation of mid-century British life has made it an enduring masterpiece. Laura Lundy-Paine for the Virago Theatre Co. Learn More
Goldstar Member Tips
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Ruth R. on What to Wear
Casual
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Ruth R. on Where to Park
Easy street parking
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Ruth R. on Where to Eat
Cookies and water: Honor system basket
Goldstar Member Reviews
Allen Wagner.
It is NOT your usual affair and for many perhaps too far out there; but to those with a yearning for meditative-connection while in-dwelling with life, this could be pure ECSTACY - just let go of all you can and float down the river with them.Written on Jul 24 2009
It was fantastic and I shall return again and again - it's more ritual than theater.
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Rach N
I gave these tickets to my friend and was told that this is experimental theatre with no linear storyline. It was interesting but might not be catered to some people's taste.Written on Aug 10 2009
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dance fan
I loved this, but not everyone will. If you like linear, plot driven narratives, you'll be scratching your head. However, if you enjoy performances that don't have a central point, but showcase a range of experiences and interesting characters (loved the feisty, foul-mouthed grandmother!!), then this is your cup of tea.Written on Aug 01 2009
Created by a group of artists with varying Middle Eastern heritages, Ecstasy uses songs, dance, music (one guy plays 6 different instruments and sings beautifully), and drawings to bring to life an ancient one paragraph Sufi fable. The piece provides total immersion in a world of sounds, textures, and borrowed tales that represent (as the Turkish born/raised director states in the program notes) "...the only play...that truthfully and artistically speaks to my own experience of where I am from."
75 minutes, no intermission; you can't get a bad seat in this small theatre, but everyone is escorted in at once, so be prepared to wait in the lobby until close to curtain time and don't be late; although it's a 'fable', I don't recommend it for children.
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Goldstar Member
I really wanted to like this. The ensemble is engaging and earnest. The production values are strong, especially Jarrod Fischer's lighting. In the end, I really have no idea what this was about. The pacing was flat. There was no tension or dramatic conflict. I didn't understand the relationship between the characters. For me, it wasn't drama or a fable, and definitely not ecstasy. The characters did talk about water, though.Written on Aug 01 2009
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More Information About Ecstacy | a waterfable
Website
Description
<p>
Golden Thread Productions is proud to present the world premiere of ECSTASY | a waterfable, a new play commissioned to Bay Area theatre artist Denmo Ibrahim and directed by Evren Odcikin. In ECSTASY, stories are written in water, spells are cast through washing, and to drink either creates your life or rips it from you. In this dangerous water world, three uniquely lost characters struggle to remember and pray to forget. A man devotes his life’s work to a tragically simple task. A young woman is haunted by past images not her own. And an elder, submerged in a flood of old pictures, fights to remember a story that slowly seduces her into it. Inspired by 9th century Sufi fable, "When the Waters Were Changed" and created through a year-long development process with the Water Project ensemble with the generous support of the prestigious New Works Fund Grant, Zellerbach, and Wallace Gerbode Foundation, ECSTASY | a waterfable is visceral, physical storytelling at its best.
The ancient Sufi story "When the Waters Were Changed", the inspiration for ECSTASY, recounts a time when Khidr, the teacher of Moses, warned that all water that had not been specially hoarded would disappear. It would be renewed with different water, which would drive men mad. On the appointed date, the world dried up. There was a period of waiting. And when the waters came again, only one man heeded the call, only one remembered the warning. In ECSTASY, the essence of his struggle bleeds through three times of existence –the ancient, the mythic, and the modern.
Weaving elements of text, live music, and ensemble imagery, ECSTASY culminates in an interactive ritual of remembering and forgetting. In an attempt to address omens – personal, communal, and global – this visually stunning, non-linear waterfable unravels through an intensely collaborative, highly stylized performance where three divided worlds discover they are bound irrevocably through lineage.</p>
About the Ticket Supplier: Golden Thread Productions
Golden Thread Productions is dedicated to theatre that explores Middle Eastern cultures and identities as represented throughout the globe.
Their mission is to build an organization that consistently produces the highest quality theatre about Middle Eastern culture and to establish a dynamic artistic community and an expanding audience. And to make the Middle East a regular part of the American Theatre Experience and make theatre a regular part of the Middle Eastern community's cultural experience.