POETS THEATER JAMBOREE 2007
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2007
Selections from “James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet” (1982)
Written by John Cage / Directed by Marie Carbone / With Gillian Conoley, Patricia Dienstfrey, Dale Going, Brenda Hillman, Denise Liddell Lawson, Denise Newman, giovanni singleton and Carol Snow
…a performance of avant-garde composer John Cage’s 1982 radio play James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet. Directed by Marie Carbone, it featured eight actors portraying major philosophical icons from the last two centuries, including not only Joyce, Duchamp, and Satie but also Mao Tse-tung, Henry David Thoreau, and Buckminster Fuller. The dizzying conversation saw the great minds discussing subjects as far-reaching as furniture music and telepathic travel, with all the expected humor, irreverence, and flashes of historical consequence that resonate through most of Cage’s work. It was like the ultimate cover version.
– Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic, writing for Poetry Foundation.org
