The Brick Theater, Inc. presents a Gemini CollisionWorks production of A Little Piece of the Sun a documentary play by Daniel McKleinfeld / designed and directed by Ian W. Hill
The Soviet Union, 1978 to 1990.
Andrei Chikatilo, serial killer. Official Body Count: 53. Actual Body Count: Will never be known.
Chernobyl Reactor Unit #4, nuclear power plant. Official Body Count: 31. Actual Body Count: Will never be known.
Two true stories of murder, which are one true story of lies and corruption. A portrait of a country so determined to prove its superiority and perfection that it refuses to acknowledge the possibility of its own errors, to the point of allowing mass murder to occur because to try to prevent it would be to admit that it was possible. A dark, sardonic cry of pain against those in power who prefer ideology to reality.
In his A Little Piece of the Sun (which premiered at the 2001 NYC Fringe Festival, but has been revised and updated for this production), Daniel McKleinfeld takes the contemporary stories of serial killer Andrei Chikatilo and the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster and, using a collage of dozens and dozens of source texts, has created a theatrical documentary study of a broken society in which, merely to survive, one had to be a hustler, a liar, and a cheat, no matter how moral one may have been. A society in which a serial killer is allowed to roam free because it can't be admitted that a serial killer could possibly exist in the USSR, and where the management of nuclear power plants is chosen based on Party affiliation and loyalty rather than on skill and knowledge. A dreamlike, symphonic collision of texts, interviews, poetry, science, and history, A Little Piece of the Sun is a theatrical autopsy in which Art is the only scalpel sharp enough to cut through the mangled and burnt surface of lies and deception to reveal the glowing fragment of truth underneath it all.
And, of course, it may be noted in passing that while this is a documentary about another country in another time, certain lessons as to the effects of governments that cover up their institutional failings with lies and corruption (leading to both direct and inadvertent murder) are universal and timeless.
Director/designer Ian W. Hill has created 59 stage productions since 1997 with his company Gemini CollisionWorks, including works by Vaclav Havel, Richard Foreman, T.S. Eliot, Clive Barker, Mac Wellman, Ronald Tavel, Jeff Goode, Mark Spitz, and Edward D. Wood, Jr., as well as several original plays. As a designer (light, sound, projections, sets) and technical/artistic consultant he has worked with many other stage artists and theatres for the past 20 years, and he is currently the technical director of The Brick. He will also be presenting three other plays in rep with A Little Piece of the Sun in August at The Brick: George Bataille's Bathrobe by Richard Foreman, Blood on the Cat's Neck by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Sacrificial Offerings by David Finkelstein and Ian W. Hill.
The cast of this production is
David Arthur Bachrach*, Fred Backus, Aaron Baker, Olivia Baseman*, Adam Belvo, Eric Feldman, Ian W. Hill,
Colleen Jasinski, Gavin Starr Kendall, Roger Nasser, Tom Reid, Melissa Roth, Patrick Shearer, Alyssa Simon*
at The Brick
575 Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211
½ a block from the Lorimer stop of the L Train / Metropolitan-Grand stop of the G Train -
www.bricktheater.comAugust 7, 12, 15, 21, 23 and 27 at 8.00 pm; August 9, 16, and 30 at 3.00 pm
approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes long (including one intermission)
All tickets: $15.00
Tickets available at the door or through theatermania.com (212-352-3101 or toll-free: 1-866-811-4111)
