Image: Performance of The Madman and the Nun by One-Eighth/Daniel Irizarry Theater, Pregones/PRTT, New York City, photo by Michael Mullen.
The Madman and the Nun explores the tyranny of society over the individual as well as the boundaries of sanity. Sound familiar? The play can be seen as an absurdist comedy in which science, religion, and the state form a totalitarian alliance to bring about enforced happiness and social tranquility by means of psychiatric confinement. It is “dedicated to all the madmen of the world.”
In Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz’s The Madman and the Nun (1923), Walpurg, an acclaimed poet, is bound in a straitjacket in an insane asylum, his voice silenced by an even more insane bureaucracy of scientists and religious authorities. Whether Walpurg is a visionary or a hack is irrelevant, for in Witkiewicz's view, any artistic impulse "happens almost always on the very edge of madness." The asylum is run by lunatics. A nun is a creature of carnal passions. Murder is a cure for a murderer's madness. The Madman and the Nun is about an artist's struggle to maintain his sanity in an insane world. On several occasions, Walpurg attempts to reveal to the audience that society is a soulless machine. This is the universe in which Walpurg finds himself, a universe full of inexplicable uncertainties. The artist by definition is self-destructive on a cosmic scale.
The Madman and the Nun (1923), Poland. Playwright: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. Direction and choreography: Daniel Irizarry. Cast: Nicole Betancourt (Dr. Jan Bidello), Ishani Das (Dr. Ephraim Grün), Michael Leonard (Alexander Walpurg), Axh Marie (Sister Barbara), Folami Williams (Sister Anna), Daniel Irizarry (Professor Walldorf).
Set designer: Ozlem Gezgin. Set builder: Zilvinas Jonusas. Lighting design: Christina Tang. Music director: Desmar Guevara. Music: Troy “Mobius” Simms. Costume design: James Terrell. Produced by: Brooke Bell, Tomek Smolarski. Translation: Daniel. C. Gerould and C.S. Durer. Presented by: One-Eighth/Daniel Irizarry Theater, Polish Cultural Institute New York.
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STANISLAW IGNACY WITKIEWICZ (1885-1939), known as “Witkacy,” may well have been Europe’s most radical novelist, dramatist, painter, and philosopher in an era when artists competed fiercely to break away from all that had come before. Writing in Polish yet banned in Communist Poland, Witkacy may not have gained the international attention of the Surrealists, Dadaists, or other Absurdists, but his work remains a striking example of modernism. Witkacy wrote over 30 plays between 1918 and his suicide in 1939. Despite his productivity, he was practically ignored in his time and left behind no direct disciples, yet mysteriously, has gone on to stir up more excitement among young playwrights than practically any other 20th-century writer, Eugene O’Neill notwithstanding. His influence is perhaps amplified by the enthusiasm of European scholars, but his status as progenitor of the avant garde is undeniable. His plays were rediscovered in the 1950s and ‘60s, when they were hailed as precursors of the European theatrical movement known as the Theater of the Absurd. Witkiewicz is known for his outrageously extravagant scenes influenced by all kinds of occultisms and philosophical speculations.
DANIEL IRIZARRY is an international director, actor/performer ,and educator based in New York City. He is the artistic director of the One-Eighth Theater. Currently directing and developing a new experimental musical inspired by the work of Witkacy written by Rober Lyons and music composer Kamala Sankaram which will premiere in August 2021 in New York City at The Ice Factory. He directed YOVO written by Robert Lyons and performed at The New Ohio Theatre and IRT Theater, New York City, Gardzienice International theater festival, Poland, and in Ciego de Ávila, Cuba. Directed an adaptation of Gogol's The Inspector General in NCPA performing space in Mumbai, India. Directed and performed the world premiere of Yukio Mishima’s Busu for Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival. As director and performer he is known for: The Maids by José Rivera (The New York Times Critics pick), UBU (Time Out NY Critics pick), Numbness: Chapter 2 (The New Ohio and IRT Theatre Archive Residency), The Madman and the Nun performed in Turkey (World Premiere), Poland (Gardzienice), and New York City (Pregones Theatre), An Italian Straw Hat (Essen, Germany), Mouthgasm Chapter 1 (Turkey and Cyprus), Momorato(Tokyo, Japan), Fragments (Vilnius, Lithuania), and Chekhov’s one-act series (Seoul, South Korea). Directed Black Waterwhich toured to Ciego de Ávila, Cuba International Theatre Festival. Performed Piazzola’s Maria de Buenos Aires (Bare Opera at Blue Building in New York City). Irizarry taught acting and directing all around the world (India, South Korea, Japan, Lithuania, Turkey, UK, US, Poland, Puerto Rico among other countries). He holds an MFA in Acting from Columbia University and a BA in drama from The University of Puerto Rico.
NICOLE BETANCOURT is a versatile actress that has developed characters for film, theater, and web series. Her theater credits include: LA Diversity in Comedy Festival (The Second City), Witkacy’s The Mad Man and the Nun(PREGONES), Storage Locker (IATI), UBU ROI (guest artist) (IRT & INTAR), Life Could Be A Sueño (HERE Arts Center & Teatro La Tea), The Vagina Monologues, Rally Cry (PRTT) and A Taste Of Honey (under the direction of Susan Batson). Currently can be seen on TV as Melty Face in OITNB and officer Spanos in Start Up. NicoleBetancourt.com
ISHANI DAS is an actress, painter, filmmaker, and dancer. She loves the typical stormy monsoon, the ticket-master’s song of the next stop approaching, the mediocre gossiping of Bengali elders, the banter of what’s next in love, Italian dresses, copper lipstick and Salsa though not necessarily in combination, Brooklyn sass, and Navajo turquoise hoops. https://ishanidas.wordpress.com/
MICHAEL LEONARD is a New York City-based actor and filmmaker. Michael received his MFA in acting from Columbia University. He was last seen onstage in BUSU at the ProvinceTown Tennessee Williams festival and at The New Ohio Theatre in Numbness Ch. 2. Michael is also a pisces, Enneagram 6, Myers Briggs INFP, and Hufflepuff.
AXH MARIE is a New Mexico born queer interdisciplinary artist witch who uses tHEiR work to explore the intersection of surrealist performance and psychic development. She is a self-proclaimed autodidact and works in mediums across performance (acting, dancing, directing, design), creative writing (poetry, playwriting), and spiritual wellness & divination (tarot, palmistry, witchcraft). She received formal training from the University of New Mexico (BA Theater, 2013) and Columbia University of New York (MFA Acting, 2018) and has worked and trained with various companies such as: Theatre Mitu, SITI Company, Shakespeare and Co, Funny School of Good Acting and more. She has also travelled the world to train and work with notable artists, such as Marina Abramovic (Generator, New York City, 2014), Yoshito Ohno (workshops, Japan, 2011), Eiko and Koma (workshop, New Mexico, 2010), Anne Bogart (Columbia University, 2018), and Ruben Polendo (workshop, Bangalore, India, 2017). Axh is also the owner and Divination worker of “Self Sovereign Healing,” a collaborative space dedicated to the intersection of art, witchcraft, and holistic practice. tHEy reside in Brooklyn.
FOLAMI WILLIAMS is an actor and teaching artist currently based in Brooklyn, New York. She has an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. She also received a BA in Drama from the University of Virginia. Select theater includes: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Skeleton Crew (Portland Stage Company), Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare Theatre Company, Helen Hayes Award nom.), Julius Caesar, Othello (Classic Stage Company), Smart People (Kitchen Theatre Company), The Maids (INTAR/One-Eighth Theater), Blue Window (Columbia University), Romeo & Juliet(Manhattan Shakespeare Project), Auto de Fe (International WOW Company). TV: Younger (TV LAND), Bull (CBS), She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix; dir. Spike Lee). www.folamiwilliams.weebly.com
BROOKE BELL is an experimental theatre, film, and performance artist. She is the artistic director of Virago Stage and Screen and a member of Caborca. Her multi-media feminist satire The Dancing Boobies Trilogy: Lecture and Reenactments, produced by Virago Stage and Screen, has been performed at the Brooklyn Museum and the Center for Performance Research. She has had the pleasure of working extensively with One Eighth, Dangerous Ground, Stolen Chair, Three Day Hangover and the Institute for Psychogeographic Adventure.
DESMAR GUEVARA is a recognized champion of new music idioms in Latin Jazz, and composer of experimental and non-traditional music for live theater performance. He is longtime Musical Director of Pregones/PRTT, with dozens of original scores, songs, and arrangements to his credit, including “I Like It Like That” featuring salsa star Tito Nieves, Betsy! with Old Time master Ron Short and Nashville Jazz luminary Beegie Adair, and The Harlem Hellfighters On A Latin Beat starring legendary Puerto Rican singer/songwriter Danny Rivera. Mr. Guevara is founder-director of chamber jazz ensemble Taller Sicá, founding member of Afro Puerto Rican ensemble Viento de Agua, and his numerous Latin music credits include concerts, tours, and recordings with genre greats like Celia Cruz, Tito Puente, Andy Montañez, and Soledad Bravo. Recent chamber premieres include Grados Inefables, commissioned by arts presenters in New York, Colorado, and California, and funded in part by the National Performance Network, and The Last Taíno Battle, commissioned by the Multicultural Music Group.
TROY “MOBIUS” SIMMS Saxophonist and producer Troy "Mobius" Simms has been creating music and performing in New York City since 1998. After moving to Puerto Rico for six months in 2001, Troy started the Mobius Collective with a weekly residency in Viejo San Juan where he was able to explore the fusion of his own Jazz, Funk, Hip-Hop roots with the Afro Latin rhythms of the island. Mobius has played with such noted musicians as Junior Marvin, Lee Scratch Perry, The Roots, Redman, The Roots Radics, Ladybug Mecca, Roy Ayers, Osunlade, Meshell Ndegeocello to name a few. The artist played a part in the Academy Award nominated movie American Hustle as the saxophonist in a 1970s soul band. Troy now produces Mobius Collective & Brooklyn Gypsies.
One-Eighth/Daniel Irizarry Theater has been creating new, bold, international theater since 2008. One-Eighth has been both a New York Times and Time Out New York critics pick, developed work as a part of the New Ohio Theater and IRT’s Archive Residency, a four year Residency at INTAR Theatre, and two residencies with Mabou Mines. Artistic director Daniel Irizarry has directed The Inspector General at NCPA in Mumbai, India, staged the world premiere of Witkacy's The Madman and the Nun with Turkish actors in Ankara, Turkey and the World premiere of Mishima's Busu at the Tennessee Williams festival in Provincetown, USA. Traveling and connecting is the key to our company and we have proudly shared sweat all around the world- offering acting Labs and kicking ass sharing theatrical pieces along the way!
This performance is produced by Tomek Smolarski and supported by the Polish Cultural Institute New York and One-Eighth/Daniel Irizarry Theater.
ABOUT THE 2021 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2021 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring Vaclav Havel is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association. The program is co-produced by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, GOH Productions, Czech Center New York, Polish Cultural Institute New York, One-Eighth/Daniel Irizarry Theater, Slovak Consulate General in New York, Palissimo Company, and Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague, Czech Republic.
The 2021 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Council Member Ben Kallos. Additional support is by the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, Ceskoslovenska obchodni banka – Member of the KBC Group, PACE.V4 – Performing Arts Central Europe, Visegrad Countries Focus, and International Visegrad Fund.