DURHAM—What if Picasso had not died in 1973 but was murdered by the Germans during the occupation of Paris in 1940?
This is the scenario playwright Ariel Dorfman has devised for his play, “Picasso’s Closet,” which will have a staged reading at the Nasher Museum of Art, beginning Oct. 29.
“Picasso’s Closet” is the first official event celebrating “25 Years of Ariel Dorfman at Duke University”, an event sponsored by the Duke University Center for International Studies.
The Nasher Museum’s exhibit, “Picasso and the Allure of Language” creates a stunning background for this play, which, like Picasso, distorts reality, transgresses and reforms the question of “what is art?”
The play premiered in 2006 at Theater J in Washington, D.C., directed by John Dillon. This latest performance will be a staged reading, directed by Jay O’Berski, artistic director of the Little Green Pig Theatrical Concern and Duke Theater Studies lecturing fellow.
General admission tickets are $5. For ticket information, call 684-4444 or visit tickets.duke.edu, or at the Nasher the day of a performance. Ticket sales will benefit three organizations supporting literacy and human rights.
The performance on Thursday, Oct. 29 begins at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a conversation between Ariel Dorfman and the audience. Performances on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31 begin at 7 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.
A special performance of “Picasso’s Closet” on November 15 will include a benefit dinner, with donations going to the Durham Literacy Center, the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC), and the PEN American Freedom to Write Program.
Reservations for the 5 p.m. dinner with Ariel Dorfman may be made by contacting Rob Sikorski, Executive Director of DUCIS. (r.sikorski [Email: r.sikorski #AT# duke.edu ]). Reserved seats are limited. The performance will follow at 7 p.m. in the Nasher Museum’s Nancy A. Nasher and David J. Haemisegger Family Lecture Hall. General admission ($5) will also be sold for the evening performance.
Patricia Leighten, Duke professor of Art, Art History and Visual Studies, wrote in the March 2009 Art Bulletin dedicated to this play: “In ‘Picasso’s Closet,’ Dorfman explores the precise question Picasso addressed in his statements: What is the responsibility of the artist in times of war? Picasso’s answer is that it is the same as in times of peace, especially when that peace is predicated on injustice: to make art that stands for life against death.”
Mieke Bal, a cultural theorist and critic at the University of Amsterdam, wrote in the same journal: “Dorfman’s play has a special appeal for historians of art. Those interested in modernism may have always wondered how Picasso could survive painting radical art under the nose of the Nazi regime… The play presents an imagined response.”
Ariel Dorfman is the Walter Hines Page Professor of Literature and Latin American Studies and Writer in Residence at DUCIS. His plays, including “Death and the Maiden,” “Widows,” and “The Other Side,” have been translated into more than forty languages and performed in over 100 countries. His play, “Purgatorio” will have its Spanish language premiere in Madrid in February 2010, starring Viggo Mortensen and Emma Suárez, one of Spain’s pre-eminent actresses.
Ariel Dorfman’s website is www.arieldorfman.com
For more info, contact:
Jennifer Prather
Assistant to Ariel Dorfman
919-684-6054
jprather [Email: jprather #AT# duke.edu ]
