Waxfactory Celebrates 20th Anniversary with the World Premiere of LULU XX

WaxFactory, one of the most internationally active multidisciplinary groups to emerge from the New York downtown scene, is presenting LULU XX, a new cross-media performance that celebrates the company's 20th anniversary.

Inspired by Frank Wedekind's timeless female protagonist, LULU XX challenges the idolatry and the misogyny of the male gaze in the artistic representation of women.

Created by WaxFactory's co-founders Ivan Talijancic and Erika Latta, the performance revisits the unapologetic heroine of Wedekind's Lulu plays (Earth Spirit and Pandora's Box), asking new questions about agency, representation, and violence in the contemporary world. LULU XX runs September 18-28 at the Connelly Theater (220 E 4th Street, Manhattan) with an opening set for September 19.

At the turn of the 20th century, German playwright Frank Wedekind imagined Lulu, an elusive heroine. Equally puzzling, indestructible, and complex as the pandemonium of female archetypes invented throughout history, Lulu manifested herself as the definitive embodiment of the eternal strife to reconcile the worlds of male and female genders.

At the turn of the 21st century - in 1999 - having just co-founded WaxFactory, Talijancic and Latta, turned their attention to Lulu as their first formal collaboration, although in New York, it was only presented as a work-in-progress. 20 years later and inspired by the momentum of recent feminist protest, WaxFactory sets out to exorcise a multitude of age-old archetypes of women and methodically dismantle them, one at a time.

Directed and designed by Talijancic, LULU XX unfolds over nine climatic scenes using WaxFactory's signature multidisciplinary approach to storytelling. In a virtuosic performance, Latta undergoes multiple radical transformations as she embodies each avatar of Lulu. Aided by an immersive video environment that includes a kaleidoscopic, forced-perspective box set with projections covering each wall in its entirety, LULU XX finds WaxFactory working at the pinnacle of their theatrical vision.

In addition to visual and set design by Talijancic, the creative team for LULU XX includes Miodrag Guberinic (costumes), Yiannis Christofides (sound), Jason Batcheller (video), Paul Hudson (lights), and Sandy Cleary (associate producer, performance coordinator).

Twelve performances of LULU XX will take place September 18-28 at the Connelly Theater, located at 220 E 4th Street in Manhattan. The performance schedule is Wednesday-Saturday at 7:30 pm with additional 10pm performances on Friday and Saturday.

Critics are welcome as of Thursday, September 19 which will serve as the opening night. Tickets-priced at $20 with a $15 preview on September 18-can be purchased by visiting waxfactory.nyc.

Photo Credit: Tasja Keetman

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