A former strip club is the scene for Collapsable [sic] Giraffe's latest, 3 Virgins, at NYC's Big Top Theater II, July 8 - 25.
The Big Top II, a former "Show World" strip club, has not seen a live performance of any type since NYC Mayor Giuliani closed down many of the strip clubs and "burlesques" in town.
3 Virgins is a new theatre piece based on a 10th century play, Sapientia by the German abbess Hrotzvita. It tells of three Christian girls who are violently tortured and martyred by a pagan emperor. TCG merges the liturgical, with contemporary influences, mixing in texts from Japanimation and other unusual texts.
Amy Huggans directs a cast including Lori Chodos, Makeda Christodoulos, Jim Findlay, Guy Larkin and Amy Webb. Findlay is a core member of the Wooster Group - designing sets for many of their recent productions.
The production was run in a workshop format at The Big Top II, April 29 May 2, of this year. Findlay, a co-artistic director of the company, told Playbill On-Line (June 9), "We work in an experimental milieu, so the workshop performances and post-performance rehearsals helped us add and refine material. The first workshop used about 60 percent of the original story; more elements have been added, so we're up to about 80 percent." The Collapsable Giraffe was founded in 1995 and comprises a varied group of theatre, film and visual artists, composers, musicians and writers. All are committed to the collaborative creation of original theatrical performances using original, obscure, non-traditional, classical and contemporary texts. Previous productions include Damfino at The Performing Garage, Beer & Fisticuffs, Penthesilea/after Kleist at the Ontological, SMXL at El Bohio, Pre-Paradise Sorry Now at NADA, Stein Stein at Access Theatre and Acker Versus at HERE.
For tickets or more information on 3 Virgins call (212) 674-9548.
-- By Sean McGrath