A dystopian legal drama starring Elizabeth Marvel; avant-garde takes on Dostoevsky, Dante and the Biggest Loser TV show, a puppet ballet, Palestinian folk dancing, a Russia-to-Oklahoma Jewish Roots, and a “grotesque” play from an Oscar-nominee are among the dozens of works from around the world that will be presented in Fall 2025 by the only Off-Off Broadway theater to win the Tony Award for Regional Theater. La MaMa Experimental Theater Company is launching its 64th season with far more shows than the typical theater company, shorter runs, and a greater variety of genres; there will also be 20 community events and two livestreams a month.
There’s a lot, worth sorting through on their website. Below is a sampling of ten, which are among the more easily explained, which I do briefly, with their titles linked to more elaborate descriptions.
Family
September 12-28
In this grotesque and pitch-dark play written by Celine Song, who is best known as the filmmaker of the lovely Oscar-nominated “Past Lives,” three half-siblings mourn their late father and battle over what lies underneath the floorboards.
And Then We Were No More
September 19 – November 2
In this play by actor/writer Tim Black Nelson, with a cast that features Elizabeth Marvel, a lawyer in the not-too-distant future is forced to represent a prisoner deemed ‘beyond rehabilitation.’ In the ensuing trial that would have her client executed in a newly developed machine designed to do so ‘without pain,’ the attorney must strive for justice in a system devoid of mercy.
The (Un)Double
October 9 – 19
This dialogue and dance theater written and directed by Anthony Nikolchev is inspired by Fyodor Dostoevky’s novella about a man who encounters his identical double, and feels bested by him to the point of mental breakdown.
Tawasol
October 10-12
A performance by the El-Funoun Palestinian Dance Troupe, which combines folk dance with stories from the lives of the five dancers, and encourages the audience to participate.
Drop Dead…Gorgeous
October 17 – November 2
A multimedia dance performance by Tamar Rogoff that depicts a surreal TV game show competition to win the dream body as a way to critique the lengths to which we go to find happiness in the mirror.
La Comedia Divina (The Divine Comedy)
November 20 – 23
Dario D’Ambrosi’s adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy for Teatro Patologico explores the challenges faced by people with disabilities, especially those with mental health conditions.
Osni the Flare
November 20 – 23
A puppet ballet about the origins of fire, whien Osni embarks on a quest to safeguard an apple tree from the imminent winter chill, but is beckoned by a loon into a blue canoe that drifts deep into a cavernous world.
Protest Song
December 4 – 21
Tim Price’s one-man play tells the story of witty, charismatic man who is also an addict living on the streets of London during the Occupy London movement of 2011.
From the Other Side
December 4 – 14
Theater from the Balkans, including “They Are All Gone” by Doruntina Basha about the genocide in Srebrenica and “Things That Burn Easily” written and directed by Vedrana Klepica about a natural disaster that affects members of a family with conflicting world views. There will also be staged readings, video performances, and discussions.
Oklahoma Samovar
December 5 – 21
Alice Eve Cohen’s play depicts five generations of a family, beginning with two Latvian teenagers who flee the Russian Army in 1887, and become the only Jews in the Oklahoma Land Run. A century later, twenty-year-old Emily tries to decipher her late mother’s mysterious request to have her ashes spread on a stranger’s farm, in a place she has never heard of
