PROTEST ART MAKES A RESURGENCE
MaMa Does Dada: Absurdist Theatre
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAMA DOES DADA: ABSURDIST THEATRE
Written/Directed by Madeline Magnifico, AKA MaMa
Plays at The Other Space at The Actors Company, June 5, 7, 13, 14, and 15
Los Angeles, California—
Art historian and absurdist actress Madeline Magnifico, known to her devoted fans and detesting enemies alike as MaMa, has created a wholly new work celebrating the near-lost anti-art of Dadaism. “MaMa Does Dada: Absurdist Theatre” celebrates classics of the genre, incorporating works by Dadaist founders Tristan Tzara, Marcel Janco, Hugo Ball, and Richard Huelsenbeck, while also incorporating wholly new creations by MaMa herself. Thanks to MaMa’s ebullient energy and the unpredictable, chaotic, and wholly silly nature of the material, this one-hour, solo production feels like a full-length Broadway show featuring a full cast—for better or for worse.
Largely improvisational and highly chaotic, the show incorporates elements of audience participation, sound poems, nonsense scenes, and repetition. With potential elements selected out of a hat at the beginning of each performance and run order determined by dice rolls, each show will be vastly different from the others. This planned chaos feels bizarrely familiar in an age where the news brings new surprises each day, many of them unpleasant.
Founded at the now-infamous Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland in the 1920’s, the Dada movement was a protest against the overly rigid logic that the artists believed had led to the horror of World War I. Modern laymen tend to instantly think of Marcel Duchamp’s famous “found” sculpture, “Fountain,” created by turning a urinal upside down and presenting it as high art; however, the root of Dadaism was in the theatre. Recognizing parallels between the reactionary freedom of the 20’s and today’s drifting, enraged generations, MaMa believes Dada art matters now more than ever. Her show is presented as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival, the ideal venue for celebrating the weird, the funny, the comporarily relevant, and the socially commenting.
“I’ve been interested in Dada for a long time, and nobody does it anymore,” says MaMa, portrayed by actress Jerilyn “The Whirlwind” Paige. “As I’ve been talking to people about it, there are many who have never heard of the movement. Those who have are usually only familiar with the visual art, unaware that there is a rich theatrical history, too. The theatrical work is like nothing you’ve ever experienced. It is intoxicating. I think Dada is more relevant than ever, and I urgently want to introduce modern audiences to the genre.”
“MaMa Does Dada: Absurdist Theatre” runs as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival at The Actors Company, 916 N Formosa Avenue, Hollywood. Show dates are June 5 at 10:00pm, June 7 at 2:00pm, June 13 at 10:30am, June 14 at 6:00pm, and June 15 at 7:30pm. Discounts are offered for Fringe patrons and participants, and those holing Fringe buttons. Details can be found on the Fringe website at https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/14530.
