BAM And Onassis Cultural Center New York Present 'Speaking Truth To Power' Series

As part of the 2018 Next Wave Festival, BAM and Onassis Cultural Center New York will present Speaking Truth to Power, a fall series of theater productions, conversations, and film screenings that explores the concept of free speech as a form of resistance, and examines the challenges facing individuals, societies, and movements that seek to employ it. While freedom of speech is considered a cornerstone of our democratic freedoms, ancient Greeks wrestled with the extent to which the power to speak freely could degrade the very institutions designed to protect that right. The debate about the role of truth--who is able to speak it and the potential dangers posed to our society when it is either permitted or restricted--rages on.

Anthony S. Papadimitriou, President and Treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Onassis Foundation, said, "It is the duty of every citizen, as it is ours at the Onassis Foundation--which exists for the benefit of the public and, beyond Greek art and ideas, promotes social welfare in all its forms--to defend truth and keep it alive through dialogue and culture. It may prove the best defense we have against letting our societies sink into oblivion. We hope that our collaboration with BAM in Speaking Truth to Power highlights this responsibility and its urgency today more than ever before."

This robust series comprises two theater productions; four humanities programs; a four-part film series; a conversation and film event; a visual art installation; and an exhibition of materials from the BAM Hamm Archives.

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Theater Programming

The Bacchae
By Euripides
Translation by Aaron Poochigian
Directed by Anne Bogart
Created and performed by Siti Company

Set and lighting design by Brian H Scott
Costume design by Eleni Kyriacou
Sound design by Darron L West
Composed by Erik Sanko

BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton Street)
Oct 3-6 at 7:30pm, Oct 7 at 3pm
Tickets start at $30

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Greek
Scottish Opera/Opera Ventures
Libretto by Steven Berkoff from his play Greek
Adapted by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Jonathan Moore
Composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage
Conducted by Stuart Stratford
Directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins
Associate Director Daisy Evans

Set design by Johannes Sch?tz
Costume design by Alex Lowde
Lighting design by Matthew Richardson
Video design by Dick Straker
Movement by Jenny Ogilvie
Dramaturgy by Caroline Steinbeis
Soloists from The Orchestra of Scottish Opera

In English with English titles
Co-produced by Opera Ventures and Scottish Opera

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave)
Dec 5, 6 & 8 at 7:30pm; Dec 9 at 3pm
Tickets start at $35

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Humanities Programming

On Fear and Governance
With Anne Bogart and Monica Youn
In conversation with Corey Robin
Co-presented by BAM and the Onassis Cultural Center New York
Oct 5 at 6pm, BAM Fisher Hillman Studio (321 Ashland Pl)
Price: $15; $7.50 for BAM members

On Confronting Silence
With Masha Gessen and Aja Monet
In conversation with Amanda Foreman
Co-presented by BAM and the Onassis Cultural Center New York
Oct 20 at 6pm, BAM Fisher Hillman Studio (321 Ashland Pl)
Price: $15; $7.50 for BAM members

On the Force of Truth
With asha bandele, Tilde Björfors, and Anand Giridharadas
In conversation with Charles W. Mills
Co-presented by BAM and the Onassis Cultural Center New York
Nov 1 at 6pm, BAM Fisher Hillman Studio (321 Ashland Pl)
Price: $15; $7.50 for BAM members

On the Economics of Fatalism
With Sarah Jaffe and Sanjay G. Reddy
In conversation with Simon Critchley
Co-presented by BAM and the Onassis Cultural Center New York
Dec 8 at 6pm, BAM Fisher Hillman Studio (321 Ashland Pl)
Price: $15; $7.50 for BAM members

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BAMcinématek Screenings

Ran (1985) Dir. Akira Kurosawa
Oct 1 at 7pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
The legendary Japanese director's final film is a blistering, visually spectacular re-imagining of one of the greatest theatrical investigations of political power dynamics, Shakespeare's King Lear.

The Arbor (2011), Dir. Clio Barnard
Oct 15 at 7pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
This mesmerizing, endlessly inventive hybrid of documentary and fiction breathes life into the tragic story of Andrea Dunbar, the Bradford-born playwright who shot to fame with her raunchy, Thatcher-era satire Rita, Sue and Bob Too.

Whose Streets? (2017) Dirs. Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis
Oct 29 at 7pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
Plunging the viewer onto the front lines of protest in Ferguson, Missouri in the aftermath of Michael Brown's killing, this electrifying dispatch offers an urgent documentary portrait of contemporary activism in action.

Taxi (2005), Dir. Jafar Panahi
Dec 3 at 7pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
Banned from making films by the Iranian government, director Jafar Panahi posed as a taxi driver to craft this resourceful, exceptionally moving, and quietly thrilling treatise on the myriad social challenges in his home country.

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Conversation and Film

Then and Now: The Gospel at Colonus conversation + screening of Book of Clarence
With Lee Breuer, Sam Butler, and Bob Telson
In conversation with Joseph V. Melillo
Sept 12 at 7pm, BAM Rose Cinemas
Tickets: $15; $7.50 for BAM members

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Visual Art

A.M.T.P. (A Mad Tea Party), 2018
Ioanna Pantazopoulou
Wood, stainless steel teapots, artificial palm tree, Rainbow static dusters, crystals, mixed media
Dimensions Variable
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St)
On view from September 13, 2018 - January 6, 2019

BAM Hamm Archives Exhibition
Speaking Truth to Power at the Academy: In Their Own Words

BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton Street)
On view from September 13, 2018- January 6, 2019