New York Review: Target Margin Theater presents “P*SSYC*CK KNOW NOTHING: An Extended Moment of Troubling Imagery”
Natalie Rine, Associate New York Critic
As part of its third season in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Target Margin Theater is proud to continue its multi-year exploration of The One Thousand and One Nights with “P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing,” a new work that wrestles with The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad stories from the collection of classic Silk Road tales. Directed by Founding Artistic Director David Herskovits, this extended workshop presentation is part of a larger ambition, laying the groundwork for “One Night,” a massive, twelve-hour retelling of The One Thousand and One Nights set to premiere in the Spring of 2021. If this sliver of work “P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing” is any indication, Target Margin Theater is on the brink of devastating devised drama as we know it, weaving tales, themes, and authorship with light, passion, and precision.
The premise and process of “P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing” is rooted in a small note in the program: the company, anchored in an aim of “radical inclusivity,” created this play. Quoting scholar Paulo Lemos Horta, the company notes, “These texts are ‘a site of translational or editorial labor’ rather than a ‘stable object owned by a single author.’ Authorship was asserted over Arabian Nights in the rewriting of the stories of others and the construction of elaborate commentaries through which the translator assumes the identity of local informants or hijacks the text for a performance of subversive authenticity.”
I highlight this caveat because it is precisely with this same spirit of shapeshifting hijinks that the company proceeds to unravel a nesting doll of stories where authorship and ownership of “the truth” is questioned at every turn.
The onion peeling of stories within stories begins with the well-known framing device of the character Scheherazade narrating a set of tales (most often fairy tales) to the Sultan Shahriyar over many nights, in a distracting plea to spare her life. “P*ssyc*ck Know Nothing” centers on the section of The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad stories, about a hapless Porter who meets and then gets picked up by three unbelievably attractive women. The women, played just as all roles in this production are, variously rotating amongst the cast, are mysterious. They control the men gathered around them ruthlessly, yet they seem to suffer so painfully themselves. The men of the story, discontent to abide by the oath of not questioning them that they swore, hound the women, until one ultimate horror story reveals all.
The stellar ensemble of the piece presents us with intoxicating storytelling allure, able to command the room in a swirling presence of mixed stories and narrators. Able to command or entice the audience with seemingly simple objects such as an array of pillows, flowers, or even olives you can eat, the ensemble seduces us in order to grapple head-on with the larger issues of the piece surrounding power, sex, and the body. The ensemble moves as one unit, one community telling a story under director Herskovits’s masterful vision. The focus ping pongs across the room with effortless precision as the ball never gets dropped. Each emotional beat is hit with an equal regard to sensitivity and passion; the themes may be difficult and heavy, but the environment of the space they have created is one of such soft caressing, welcoming warmth that you are immediately enthralled as if sitting down at The Mad Hatter’s tea party (in large part due to the phenomenal scenic design of Carolyn Mraz in which we literally get to lounge and dine with them). In a similar vein of whimsy is the brilliant makeup and costume design by Dina El-Aziz, creating a fluid world like a mismatched circus where each individual gets the chance to act the ringleader. Video design by Gil Sperling and lighting design by Kate McGee harmonize to create some of the most powerful climaxes in the show, appropriately vacillating between the boisterous fun and suppressed horrors our characters encounter.
On a meta-level, the decision to have fluid characters and narration where anyone can play anyone pontificates a bewitched weariness of the modern era, questioning just who is ever really telling the story—and what spin, biases, and assumptions are interpolated by merit of who the speaker of any given story is. Is truth in the mouth of the speaker or ear of the listener? Or are we subject to many shiny, fantastical tales endlessly spun to distract us from darker issues that could be right beneath our noses? In an era of information overload and undisputed media bias, these questions hang draped like the Moroccan-style fabrics in the air, floating above the story with a subtle flippancy to taunt us as we fall prey to the deliberate razzle-dazzle of our storytellers.
Target Margin Theater’s exquisite devised worldbuilding and exploring of The One Thousand and One Nights proves a knack to cast stories as shadows, unafraid to see what reflections and distortions lurk behind one person’s reality for others’ consumption and interpretation. Each character, across gender and socio-economic status, gets the chance to step forward and affect the world around them for better or worse, inviting the notion everyone can instigate change, even in the face of questionable justice and horror in the world. If you can, go experience catharsis with this ensemble in this “extended moment of troubling imagery.” Be troubled, be courageous, be curious. And then I’ll see you in 2021 for their twelve-hour marathon.
Target Margin Theater presents “P*SSYC*CK KNOW NOTHING: An Extended Moment of Troubling Imagery”
Directed by David Herskovits; Created by the company from various translations / versions of “The One Thousand and One Nights.” The cast includes Ali Andre Ali, James Tigger! Ferguson, David Huynh, Anthony Vaughn Merchant, and Lori Vega. The creative team includes Carolyn Mraz (scenic design), Kate McGee (lighting design), Dina El-Aziz (costume design), Gil Sperling (video design), David Herskovits (sound design), Michelle Tuite (Production Stage Manager), and Moe Yousuf (Associate Artistic Director).
Eight performances will take place March 5– 14, 2020 at Target Margin Theater's THE DOXSEE, located at 232 52nd Street in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased by visiting targetmargin.org or by calling OvationTix 212-352-3101.
Photo Credit: Lori Vega, Rawya El Chab, Mariam Bazeed by Gaia Squarci