Les Freres Corbusier Returns Off-Broadway with Heddatron

By Robert Simonson
January 12, 2006

More than 115 years after Ibsen invented her, Hedda Gabler continues to claim a hold on the world's artistic imagination. The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler, penned by Avenue Q's Tony Award winner Jeff Whitty, recently began its world premiere at South Coast Repertory. And now the downtown Manhattan troupe Les Freres Corbusier returns with Heddatron, running Feb. 8-25 at HERE.

With Heddatron, Les Freres Corbusier claims to be forging on in its "irreverent massacre of historical icons and academic esoterica by taking on famed playwright Henrik Ibsen, the well-made play, and contemporary issues in robotics." In the play, written by Elizabeth Meriwether, directed by Alex Timbers, and produced by Aaron Lemon-Strauss, "Ibsen is thwarted by August Strindberg and his kitchen slut throughout his fevered struggle to write the great feminist drama, Hedda Gabler, while a contemporary housewife in Michigan is abducted by robots and forced to perform Ibsen's masterpiece over and over again."

The cast is said to feature both humans and "real functioning robots portraying half of the parts." The robots are designed by Meredith Finklestein and Cindy Jeffers, artists who collectively run The Botmatrix, a New York-based robotic art, performance, and outreach group.

Past victims of Les Freres Corbusier's loopy approach to theatre have been Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard (A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant) and master builder Robert Moses (Boozy).

Meriwether wrote the NYC Fringe play Nick Goes Goth, about Paris and Nicky Hilton. As an actor, she appeared in Boozy.

The cast of Heddatron includes Carolyn Beaumler, Sam Forman, Gibson Frazier, Nina Hellman, Ryan Karels, Julie Lake, Daniel Larlham, Spenser Leigh, Michael Schulman, and Ian Unterman.

Tickets are $15 general admission and may be purchased at www.heddatron.com or by phoning SmartTix at (212) 868-4444.