Eszter Balint And Stew Bring Anti Musical I HATE MEMORY To Joe's Pub This July

I Hate Memory, an anti-musical co-starring the streets of New York and the late 20th century, will have its second performance at Joe's Pub on Friday, July 8 at 9:30PM, part of an ongoing bi-monthly series and eventually an album release.

I Hate Memory was written by songwriter / violinist / actress Eszter Balint, based on an original concept by her and Tony Award-winner Stew (Passing Strange), this pair also contributing the anti-musical's songs.

This production is directed by Lucy Sexton, produced in association with Arktype. The cast and supporting musicians include Musical Director, David Nagler, Felice Rosser, Marlon Cherry, Esme Thorne, and Tammy Faye Starlite.

The architecture of the piece is a set of songs tracing Eszter's journey from communist Hungary to '70s-80s NYC by way of her parents' radical theater group and winding its way through a Lower East Side mofongo of glamour, poverty, sex, drugs, darkness and yes, light. The show digs fearlessly into oppression, freedom, the possibilities in chaos, the dreams and lost dreams of America, and the battles with memory when you are most invested in is the now.

Balint says that I Hate Memory deals with Family, Film, Fame, Immigration, Joy, Theater, Shame, Dance Floors, Open Doors, Papaya Ice Cream, and the Shah of Iran's Wife (?!)

Originally conceived as a live theatrical musical performance, I Hate Memory was one of the first shows to be cancelled, due to Covid, at Dixon Place. Since then, the team has been working on a film adaptation as well as another rewrite for the stage.

In its current live incarnation, I Hate Memory is a theatrical song cycle with projections and text performed by Eszter, with the other cast and band members chiming in.