Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm

Sounds like Tristan set in the Wild West, like the postmodern version of a romantic knightly love triangle – or like a parody of early 1950’s American Broadway theatre: Isolde, aging actress can no longer properly remember her theatre texts in spite of devoted practice sessions with her real estate agent husband. She begins to confuse the memories of her stage successes with real life, wants to commission an architect to build her dream house on the lake shore, but he achieves nothing except starting a love affair with his client. Richard Maxwell, writes the New York Times, “looks at the world with X-ray eyes. Watching the plays of this rigorously inventive author, we are encouraged to see the plasterboard behind the wallpaper, the skin under the greasepaint and the skulls beneath the skin. Or in the case of Isolde, his smashing new Off-Broadway parable, the beams and blueprints – and light and air – that go into the imagining of something as substantial and transitory as a dream house. Or, come to think of it, a play. 5 stars.” 12 years after his last performance at Mousonturm, Maxwell returns to Frankfurt with his New York City Players.
In English with German surtitles.

with Jim Fletcher, Brian Mendes, Chris Sullivan, Tory Vazquez * Text, Direction: Richard Maxwell * Set Design: Sascha van Riel * Original Costume Design: Romy * Springsguth * Additional Costume Pieces: Kaye Voyce * Lighting Technician: Zack Tinkelman * Technical Director: Dirk Stevens * Company Manager: Regina Vorria * Sound sample from Daniel Ott, performed by Sylwia Zytynska , Lanet Otero, Malte Preuss * ISOLDE and New York City Players are supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, an Alliance of Resident Theatres’ New York/Creative Space Grant, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New York Theater Program, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. ISOLDE is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts. New York City Players is a member of A.R.T./NY * ISOLDE was developed in part at Theater Basel, where it received its first production in September 2013.