HOMO SAPIENS INTERRUPTUS to Play FringeNYC

Carlos Dengler, co-founder and former member of the rock band Interpol, will premier his new solo show Homo Sapiens Interruptus as part of the 20th annual New York International Fringe Festival. Scott Wesley Slavin directs.

Beginning in 1994, when Carlos is an adrift, 20-year-old pizza delivery boy in Princeton, New Jersey, and ending fifteen years later on the cusp of his departure from one of the most successful indie rock bands of the early 2000s, Home Sapiens Interruptus is a wild exploration of youthful rebellion and the search for personal meaning, set against the rise and unexpected collapse of heavy metal in the early '90s and the subsequent explosion of post-punk revival music in downtown New York City.

This hour-long monologue, which interweaves the science of human origins and the history of heavy metal/grunge music with Carlos' own story, grapples-hilariously and shockingly-with how change and evolution test our basic desires for security and stasis, and how, in unceasing pursuit of a new, safer identities, we often travel far afield from from where we most need to be.

"I wanted to talk about a particular way of growing up with music that no longer exists but shaped me on a deep level," says Mr. Dengler. "Growing up, my home life and neighborhood were chaotic and dangerous, so I relied on music to get by day-to-day. The sense of tribal affiliation and permission to rebel against authority that heavy metal culture gave me saved my life. But when grunge took over and heavy metal collapsed, I lost the sense of who I was. This play is about this incredible, unconventional-and painful-search I undertook for many years to recreate that original sense of belonging to something. I never would have imagined where that search was going to take me and what I'd have to face at the end of it all."

Carlos Dengler (Writer, Performer) recent acting credits: Dorset Theatre Festival - music: house band on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Interpol, co-founder, bassist/keyboardist - training: MFA, NYU Tisch

Performance Dates: 8/12 @ 5, 8/15 @ 7:15, 8/19 @ 9:30, 8/22 @ 2:45, 8/25 @ 9:30