Where can you go in New York City for an audience interactive theater performance? Beertown, of course! Part civic ceremony, part theatric pageant, the show welcomes audiences into the 20th Beertown Time Capsule Day celebration, where every five years the imagined small American town unearths its beloved time capsule and ritualistically reviews its contents.
That’s right, imagined! You heard correctly. Beertown is not an actual city. The theater company created the town and its history out of pivotal moments in American history over the past 150 years. But you would never be able to tell. The audience is integrated into the action of the play, engaging them as town citizens, leading the debate and voting on the contents of the time capsule. So every performance, debate and vote is different because the audience is different. There are no audience plants, so audience members actually get to debate on what goes into the capsule and why. The performance I attended, a piece of a meteorite was voted in and the town’s founding family’s bible was voted out. Yours will be different. The show is funny, captivating and thought provoking. You’re taken through a time machine where reality and imagination collide.
Beertown is presented by dog & pony dc, an ensemble-based devised theater company focused on providing audiences new ways to experience theater. Beertown premiered in November 2011 in Washington D.C. The 59E59 production is the first appearance in New York City and is showing until February 16th.
For Beertown history: www.Visitbeertown.com
For Tickets: www.59E59.org
Twisted Talk: Will you go see Beertown? What would you put into your own time capsule? Discuss below!
