Eszter Balint And Stew to Present 2nd Performance Of I HATE MEMORY - An Anti-Musical at Joe's Pub

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 Stew, 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.

BIOS:

Eszter Balint is a singer-songwriter with three critically acclaimed solo albums. She grew up as a member of the legendary avant-garde theater company Squat Theatre. She's had featured roles in films by Jim Jarmusch, Woody Allen, and Steve Buscemi-including a role alongside David Bowie-and starred in a six-episode arc in Season 4 of Louis CK's TV show Louie. Jon Pareles of The New York Times has said of her work: "Miss Balint has her own film noir sensibility as a songwriter. She slips inside her characters to project their restlessness and longing."

Singer-songwriter Stew is a founding member of the band The Negro Problem, and a Tony and Obie award-winning playwright and composer of Passing Strange. His many other stage ccredits include Songs of a Native Song (Harlem Stage) and The Total Bent (The Public Theater) He is currently at work as co-composer, along with TNP collaborator Heidi Rodewald, on a set of songs for a new musical film by Spike Lee.

Tal Yarden: BROADWAY: Network, The Waverly Gallery, Indecent, Sunday in the Park with George, The Crucible; OPERA: Mahagonny, The Exterminating Angel, 170 Days, Between Worlds, Salome, Der Schatzgräber, Mazeppa, La Clemenza de Tito, Idomeneo, Brokeback Mountain, Ring Cycle, Macbeth; INTERNATIONAL: Network, David Bowie's Lazarus, Obsession, Antigone, Hamlet, The Damned, Oedipus, Kings of War, The Fountainhead, Cries and Whispers, Antonioni Project, Mourning Becomes Electra, Angels in America, Husbands, and Roman Tragedies, Edward II, Misanthrope.
OFF-BROADWAY: Grey Rock, Passing Strange, Between the World and Me, The Undertaking, Indecent, King Lear, Distracted, Lazarus, Little Foxes, Liberty City, The Misanthrope, & Lush Valley. Enemy of the People.
Yarden has created visuals for Reza Abdoh, DD Dorvillier, Robert Icke, Jo Andres, Ivo van Hove, Lucy Sexton, Conway & Pratt, John Jesurun, Mia Lawrence, Mikel Rouse, Kyle de Camp, Margarita Guergue, Aaron Landsman, Clarinda Mac Low & Nina Martin

Lucy Sexton is the creator of the seminal feminist performance duo DANCENOISE, developed and directed critically acclaimed Off Broadway show Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell. Additional theater: Tom Murrin's Magical Ridiculous Journey of Alien Comic (Director), Nora Burns' David's Friend (Dramaturg), Heather Litteer's Lemonade (Dramaturg), CD Clifford's Cancer, A Love Story (Director). In film she has produced documentaries by Charles Atlas for BBC, Arte (France), and Bullitt Films (Denmark).

I Hate Memory received commissioning funds from Dixon Place with support from the New York State Council on the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs with the City Council.

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