Nature Theater of Oklahoma (USA) Biografie
No Dice
Tickets
76% theatre
24% telephone conversations


“Come for the magic, don’t just stay for the sandwiches” – The New York off-off-Broadway company Nature Theater of Oklahoma effortlessly swing between transcendental heights and remarkably ridiculous depths in their entertaining three-and-a-half-hour version of the legendary, originally eleven-hour melodramatic spectacle “No Dice”.
“No Dice” is rooted rather unusually in the tradition of epic storytelling: There is no written script, instead, the company headed by multi-talented young theatre-makers Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska works from models of early performance and heroic sagas such as “The Odyssey” and “1001 Nights”. The elusive narrative thread is based on more than one hundred hours of recorded phone conversations discussing the last issues of art, religion and work as well as more personal concerns: “Should I maybe stop drinking?”, “Am I going to get fired?”, and “How can we get to that big Hollywood money?”
The text material – that is played to the performers in ever-changing compositions through headphones – is confronted with dialogues from an amateur dinner theatre, thus becoming a rather consciousness-changing theatre experience. For while the actors slave away to transform the material of their own lives into art, the façade of cheap theatricality crumbles around them. Will they pull it off? “No Dice” is a truly devilish performance that stretches the endurance of actor and audience alike.


Production Soho Rep’s Phase II Program in residence
of Downtown Art

Thu 27/09, Sat 29/09 & Mon 01/10, 7.30 pm

210’
Talk following the second performance


The Theatre / Karmeliterplatz
Concept / Direction
Kelly Copper & Pavol Liska

With
Anne Gridley, Thomas Hummel, Robert M. Johanson, Zachary Oberzan & Kristin Worrall

From conversations with
Marc Dale, Anne Gridley, Teresa Gridley, Robert M. Johanson, Jo Liegerot, Zachary Oberzan, Adam Tsekman, Katarina Vizinova & Kristin Worrall

Music
Lumberob & Kristin Worrall

Set design
Peter Nigrini

Production
Kell Condon

Nature Theater of Oklahoma

Thu 27/09, Sat 29/09 & Mon 01/10, 7.30 pm

210’
Talk following the second performance


The Theatre / Karmeliterplatz

Concept / Direction
Kelly Copper & Pavol Liska

With
Anne Gridley, Thomas Hummel, Robert M. Johanson, Zachary Oberzan & Kristin Worrall

From conversations with
Marc Dale, Anne Gridley, Teresa Gridley, Robert M. Johanson, Jo Liegerot, Zachary Oberzan, Adam Tsekman, Katarina Vizinova & Kristin Worrall

Music
Lumberob & Kristin Worrall

Set design
Peter Nigrini

Production
Kell Condon

Nature Theater of Oklahoma