Performers Jenn Kidwell, Melissa Krodman, Dito Van Reigersberg, Tony Torn, Saori Tsukuda, Evelyn Chen, Chelsea Murphy, Isaac Calvin, Rolls André
SUPERTERRANEAN by Pig Iron Theatre Company – A large-scale work of visual theatre inspired by urban infrastructure and its effect on the human body.
Refineries, dams, and wastewater treatment plants tower over us and sprawl beneath us. These massive works of infrastructure seem almost anti-human in their complexity and scale—like machines that run themselves—but they are the beating hearts that allow a city to function.
A world premiere by Pig Iron Theatre Company, Superterranean is a new work of visual theatre driven by Mimi Lien’s fascinations with urban infrastructure acting in concert with the human body.
On the outskirts of an unknown city, massive structures emerge from the murk. Here, nine performers embody our hunger for permanence, our dreams of utopia, and the melancholy contemplation of our skin, our organs, and our deepest urges.”
https://www.pigiron.org/productions/superterranean
Looking back that we made this piece in pre covid times it is quite eerie. Superterrenean is a premonition of the time that will come. The filling of loneliness and the smallness of humans among these giant cement structures. The feeling of insolation that is evoked in this spa-like place, people doing mundane activities that are now not acceptable, like breathing the same air…faceless people in a Biohazard protective hazmat suits hugging, and disinfecting this place after human use. This theatre piece had quiet tension on something that is about to erupt, holding a tremor of all the hysteria that will come and change us forever.
Production Credits
PHILADELPHIA FRINGE FESTIVAL
Playwright – Mimi Lien and Dan Rothenberg
Composer – Lea Bertucci
Director – Dan Rothenberg
Scene Design – Mimi Lien
Costume Design – Olivera Gajic
Lighting Design – Barbara Samuels
Assistant Costume Design – Scott McMaster
Production Stage Manager – Lisa Iacucci
Photographer – Johanna Austin