Life and Times - Episode I

Hilarious journey

In its first musical, the Nature Theater of Oklahoma from New York deals with the life story of one of its company members: Kristin Worrall told her life story over the telephone and thereby provided – literally – the libretto for the piece. The result is a moving and hilarious journey down a slippery slope, taking in snippets of memory, moments of insight, sudden thoughts and rambling ideas. Her web of stories makes you reflect on those moments that have made you who you are and so takes you on a trip through the deeper layers of your own forgotten history. This first part takes you back to the early years of childhood.

• Life and Times – Episode 1 is the beginning of a long epic: the 16 hours of recorded material will – if everything runs smoothly – result in a performance of no less than 24 hours, divided into 10 episodes. A great portrait of an unremarkable life, an epic journey in keeping with Proust’s A la recherche du temps perdu. It is the last in a series of performances the Nature Theater of Oklahoma made on the basis of recorded telephone conversations, all of which were presented in Kaaitheater: No Dice, Rambo Solo and Romeo and Juliet.

Press quotes

‘At a time when even Off-Off Broadway productions seem infatuated with technology and spectacle, Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s bare-bones vision recalls the “poor theater” of the 1970’s… The focus is on the actors’ voices and bodies. They animate the theater with a bravura physicality.’ – The New York Times

‘Nature Theater of Oklahoma, the most buzzed-about new troupe on the New York avant-garde scene, is certainly not for traditional tastes, its gleefully democratic spirit and old-fashioned showmanship certainly aims to please – and does so quite winningly.’ The New York Times
 
‘Deploying a fresh intelligence, an ingenious theatricality and a pleasingly odd sense of humor, the Nature Theater of Oklahoma has become one of the top alternative companies in New York.’ The Village VOICE