While Mom was visiting, we took her to see a wonderful new play by Sheila Callaghan, titled Dead City. We saw the first preview, but the cast and production were so good I wouldn't have guessed that we weren't well into the run. The title is a reference to a song by Patti Smith, and the form of the play is inspired by James Joyce's Ulysses. It's presented by the New Georges, a theater group dedicated to producing works by female playwrights. Our friend the director Anne Kauffman is a member.

From their website:

DEAD CITY is a contemporary riff on Joyce's Ulysses, set 100 years after the novel, in New York City, with a woman protagonist. Just as Ulysses is a story of Dublin, DEAD CITY is consumed with the feel of our city, in our time.

A play which riffs on Ulysses, Patti Smith, and Rimbaud is worth a visit to downtown Manhattan, and the wondefully space-age 3 Legged Dog Art and Technology Center is a great place to see a work that uses quite a bit of video projections and other multimedia. The video and production design is by William Cusick. I wrote about another project of his, The Big Art Group's House of No More. The Village Voice has an interview with the playwright if you want to learn more.

It opens tonight at 7, and runs through June 24th 30th. Tickets are only $19, but if you use the code "NGWEB" on the Smarttix site, it's only $12. How can you go wrong at that price?

Hallway of 3LD center

[photo at top is from the New Georges]