(image via Tinder Live / Facebook)
WEDNESDAY
Tinder Live
Wednesday, October 15 at The Bell House, 8 pm: $15.
Lane Moore‘s celebrated show Tinder Live returns to Park Slope venue The Bell House for yet another amusing evening of dating mishaps and more. This time around, she’s joined by comedians and/or generally creative folk Josh Gondelman (Last Week Tonight), New York Times bestselling author Mychal Smith, and writer Chloe Angyal, who genuinely has a PhD in romantic comedies. Moore is quite a multitasker herself. In addition to jokin’ and hostin’ her acclaimed comedy show, she also fronts the band It Was Romance (they garnered plenty of media attention for their Fiona Apple-inspired music video for queer song “Hooking Up With Girls”) and writes for a variety of publications. But enough about all that, this evening is all about Tinder. In a good and funny way, we swear. And in a real way: there will be live swiping. Maybe one day you’ll even end up as one of the folks Moore engages with onstage. There are many routes to stardom.
THURSDAY
(photo: Maria Baranova)
The Loon
Continues through October 29 at Abrons Arts Center, 8 pm: $25.
Dance-theater company Witness Relocation (helmed by the wiry, charismatic, tattoo-covered Dan Safer, who made quite an impression on my young mind as my movement teacher during my freshman year at NYU) presents the world premiere of a new show in collaboration with Robert M. Johanson. The Loon is based on a hodgepodge of material, including a 1980 “educational record” by the Audubon Society called “Voices of the Loon,” Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman (author of 1956 text The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life), and author Bill Bryson’s non-fiction book chronicling a “history of domestic life.” While this all sounds rather academic, I can assure you that this intellectual fodder will be funneled through Witness Relocation’s brains into an experience that is most likely loud, brash, and exciting. No bookishness to be found here. Also, I can almost guarantee the presence of a taxidermied loon.
FRIDAY
(flyer by Jojo Tastrophe)
Occupied
Friday, October 14 at Dixon Place, 7:30 pm: FREE.
Beckett’s Waiting for Godot is a tried and true classic in the theater canon; anyone from first-year drama students to seasoned masters have tried their hand at it. Occupied, a play by writer and sex educator Allegra Verlezza presented free of charge in the Dixon Place lounge, is not simply another interpretation of Beckett’s play but an homage to the ever-vanishing lesbian bar and the multifaceted nature of queer spaces. It depicts five folk in line for the bathroom at a dyke bar, for whatever of the many many reasons one might dart away to the loo in a dark, alcohol-filled room. In this bathroom line, tensions brew and relationships make themselves known, both to the space and to each other. The nod to Godot is especially satisfying, as Beckett historically had many issues with the notion of casting women in his play. Move over Samuel, there’s a queer girl in town.
SATURDAY
(flyer via Lorelei Ramirez / Facebook)
Lorelei Ramirez, Deteriorating LIVE
Saturday, October 15 at the Annoyance Theater, 8 pm: $10.
It’s always awkward when a celebrity goes through a public meltdown. But what about when a comedian goes through a live deterioration? Will you tremble? Will she tremble? Will a human being literally deteriorate into mere crumbs? It’s unclear. But what is clear is that comedian (and visual artist to boot) Lorelei Ramirez makes work that is smart, strange, and entrancing, whether she’s playing any of a series of oddball characters or simply being herself. She once made a play about a toaster and I deeply regret missing it. Though this is a one-person show, it appears to also feature Annoyance regulars Tim Platt, Ana Fabrega, and Mo Fry Pasic, and is directed by Colin Burgess, with additional video collaborations and a book of drawings and poems. Looks like in this case she literally contains multitudes? Well, she will, until she deteriorates.