Kaos November 17, 2006

Taking its title from the Sicilian hamlet where Pirandello was born, 'Kaos' (pronounced KAH-ows, after the Italian) is set at the dawn of the twentieth century and portrays common people in mystical situations, heavily influenced by poverty, violent political unrest and social changes set in motion by mass migration. Through a fusion of text, dance movement and live music based on Sicily's historical North African roots and its evocative folk songs, Martha Clarke tells the stories that Luigi Pirandello witnessed in the harsh Sicilian landscape, as he captured a culture and language on the brink of radical change. The lyrical and haunting stories tell of a lonely mother desperately trying to make contact with her children in America, a bride discovering that her new husband goes mad with each full moon and a clan of peasants fighting for the right to have a cemetery on the land they have cultivated for generations. This show is performed in Italian with English surtitles.