Program 2013

Zero Cost House

Pig Iron Theatre Company (USA) & Toshiki Okada (Japan)

Directed by Dan Rothenberg

Running Time: 110 minutes

The Public Theater: 425 Lafayette Street

$20 Tickets: publictheater.org or call 212-967-7555.

A meditation on how Henry David Thoreau's Walden changed a man's life; on the disruptions and re-imaginings that followed the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster at Fukushima; and on the uneasy compromises between radical idealism and contemporary living.  An unusual, cerebral work of autobiography brings together Okada’s sly, idiosyncratic writing and Pig Iron’s precise, physical performance spirit.

Pig Iron (Chekhov Lizardbrain) is one of the most inventive physical theatre companies in the U.S. Having trained in the movement style of Toshiki Okada and his company chelfitsch (Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and Farewell Speech), Pig Iron is the first English-language company to premiere Okada’s work.

“Humorous, heartbreaking and intense.” –EDGE Philadelphia

“Begins… to pry open those provocative ideas about philosophy, politics and shelter.” – The Washington Post

This project i partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by the Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundationl the Pennysylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trust; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. The creation of Zero Cost House was funded in part by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage through the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative; by the MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation; by the Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN Program; by the Independence Foundation New Works Initiative; by the Asian Cultural Council; by the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art; by the Saison Foundation; and by the William Penn Foundation. Zero Cost House was developed with support from PlayMakers Repertory Company, Joseph Haj, producing artistic director.

Photo by Jacques-Jean Tiziou www.jjtiziou.net

Additional photos courtesy of Pig Iron