If you’re like me, you enjoy things that are both awesome and cheap. In January, The Cutting Ball will be holding it’s annual RISK IS THIS…. experimental theatre festival. There will be staged readings of 5 plays starting January 9th, running on Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm until February 9th. Here are the plays:

Superheroes

Written and directed by Sean San José

January 11 and 12 at 8PM

“Defiant, passionate, and bursting with poetic energy, Sean San Jose’s Superheroes tells the story of a journalist working to separate fact from fiction she investigates the sordid history of the crack-cocaine epidemic. Partially inspired by Gary Webb’s groundbreaking investigative journalism into the relationship between the CIA and Nicaraguan drug traffickers, the play traces a lyrical labyrinth through churches, courthouse, and street corners in pursuit of a shocking truth.”

Ubu Roi

By Alfred Jarry

In a new translation by Rob Melrose

Directed by Yuri Urnov

January 18 and 19 at 8PM

“When Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi premiered in Paris on December 10, 1896 the audience broke into a riot at the utterance of its first word. Jarry’s irreverent parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth defiles theatrical tradition through its scatological language and disregard for audience expectations. The play replaces Shakespeare’s tragic hero with a greedy, sadistic, mean-spirited, and obscene ogre who becomes the king of Poland simply by force and through the debasement of his people. Cutting Ball will explore Ubu Roi as a reflection on the fall from grace of many a contemporary political leader corrupted by power on the international stage.”

Insect Play

By Josef and Karl Čapek

In a new version by Bennett Fisher

Directed by Rob Melrose

January 25 and 26 at 8PM

“In Karel and Josef’s masterpiece The Insect Play, a vagrant, disgusted and disillusioned by the hypocrisy and cruelty of men, wanders into the forest to live in isolation. As night falls, he experiences fantastic visions of anthropomorphic insects and embarks on a journey of self-discovery. The Insect Play takes the audience on a surreal odyssey through the world of social butterflies, industrious beetles, and warring ants in a powerful allegory about what it means to be human.”

Passing

By Dipika Guha

February 1 and 2 at 8PM

“On an unnamed colonized island, an ill suited English couple are engaged in a desperate attempt to make their marriage work. But soon after the loss of their baby, a young girl indigenous to the island enters their home, shattering both the course of their lives and history forever. Viewed through the frame of an art exhibition, Passing examines how we construct historical narratives through our museums, our theatres, and in our hearts.”

Sidewinders

By Basil Kreimendahl

February 8 and 9 at 8PM

“Sidewinders owes as much to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot as it does to SF Pride. In this absurdist-western romp through gender queerness, Dakota and Bailey find themselves lost, possibly upside down, in a strange world with even stranger characters. Their journey to getting right side up provokes questions of sex anatomy, transgenderism, and who we really are aside from what’s between our thighs.”

I’m especially excited about Rob Melrose translating Ubu Roi. I read it during my theatre history class at SFSU and loved it. Go see some shows!