Alliance for New Music-Theatre: The Man Ray Project: Caesar & The Mannequin at Atlas Performing Arts Center

Inspired by the Man Ray painting “Shakespearean Equation: Julius Caesar,” in the Phillips collection, Composer Andrew E. Simpson and Librettist Susan Galbraith have concocted a Dadaist fantastical story of a ‘Caesar,’ a character who is determined to cling to power at whatever cost and sings, “You can’t stick me in a closet; I will not stay there.” This full live-plus-mixed-media work is expanded from a prescient 2020 opera film produced in response to COVID. In 2024 as we careen toward the November election the story is even more prescient and dangerously relevant today than it was four years ago. In a fit of brilliance (or is it a dream?), Dadaist artist (Wo)Man-Ray reaches deep into his/her imagination to orchestrate the real-life meeting of two of his/her inspirations: an animate bust of Julius Caesar, and (Wo)Man’s sometime lover, the sexy model/mannequin Kiki. As the rapt creator loosens the strings of his/her living playthings, simmering conflicts escalate between political power and the power of art; between man, woman and (Wo)Man; between truth and history. Kiki vies for agency, (Wo)Man to create something permanent and true, and Caesar – full of dictatorial pretentions – to cling to power at all costs. Each wields violence, mockery, and subjugation against the others while the artist tries desperately to make sense of it all. Will this be the end of the Republic?