A Ribbon About a Bomb
Exquisite Corpse Company invites you to wander the abandoned halls of a mansion on Governors Island in a surreal exploration of the lives of 20th-century artists Frida Kahlo, Remedios Varo, and Leonora Carrington.
Audiences will cycle and muse on the duality of humanity, womanhood, and art. The captivating, sometimes terrifying work of these three women intertwine, as each attempts to shape her own reality in the face of systematic oppression and entrenched social hierarchies. Written by a diverse team of ten playwrights, the play features an original score and is performed within original art installations.
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- House 407B on Governors Island (Financial)
Cast & Creatives (29)
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Reviews (4)
3 Critics' Reviews
"A site-specific show inspired (mostly) by Kahlo should be painful—physically and maybe aesthetically. But must it hurt this much?...The result is episodic and disjointed...This isn’t a play as much as a hallucinatory, scattershot homage, with songs and audience interaction...Ornelas is the most compelling performer, exuding fervent intensity and gender-blurring sexual appeal. Otherwise, there’s a lot of overacting and, in the text, strenuously ecstatic blather." Full Review
"It is enjoyable to drift along without submerging yourself in research prior to the show...'A Ribbon About A Bomb' is true to its name, a beautiful design wrapped around an explosive core. Although the eclectic writing is not even and can fall into either obscurity or banality at times, the performances, especially of O’Leary and Ornelas, are what drive the show. I would run up and down stairs all day if one of them were leading the way. " Full Review
"The setting on Governors Island is well-suited to the story...The result is something like 'Sleep No More' but with less aimless wandering and more focused direction of where to go...While these are simplistic dualities, the play shines a spotlight on these reductionist tendencies so that when Kahlo laments, 'There is so much more to me than that,' you can’t help but feel that countless women throughout history have been underestimated all along, framed by these dualities." Full Review
1 Members' Review
See it if You like site specific work, old houses, immersive theater, love stories and the surrealist art movement.
Don't see it if you don't like to engage with performers, you don't like standing sometimes and you don't like art and learning about the artists.