Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Hotel Modern KAMP

Too busy to write much, but I must record two performances before I forget them or throw out the programs.

Watched "Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson" with TH last Thursday at the Public Theater. A rock musical written and directed by Alex Timbers, with Music and Lyrics by Michael Friedman. Great production, rousing music, dark humor, a handsome star. I want to sleep with Andrew Jackson, aka Benjamin Walker. The ending moralized too much, about the abuse of power, about the genocide of Indians, but the references to Bush, and even Clinton, were thankfully not too heavy-handed. American history has never been more enjoyable.

Another history lesson, this one seen with LW. Hotel Modern's production of KAMP at St. Anne's Warehouse in Dumbo, a part of the 9th International Toy Theater Festival. Moving about in an enormous scale model of Auschwitz, three actors manipulated the 8-centimeter tall handmade puppets that represented the prisoners and their executioners. Small scenes of action were projected on the back screen. The scrubbing of the grounds by one man. The hanging of three. The arrival of the train, and the bewildered arrivals. The mechanical shoving of corpses into the ovens. The parade. The dinner slop in metal mugs, gulped down by one man, spooned by another. The final scene was most moving. The camera moved along a dormitory, and showed first one man and then another, waking up and tilting their heads to see who was coming, as the breathing of sleep filled our ears. Creators, Set Design and Performers: Herman Helle, Pauline Kalker, and Arlene Hoornweg. The company is from the Netherlands.

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