Muazzez – Location, Tickets, Reviews
Performance Space 122 presents the New York premiere of Muazzez as part of this year’s COIL festival.
Written by Mac Wellman, theater rebel, playwright, poet, and winner of a Lifetime Achievement Obie Award, Muazzez is a play derived from his collection of short stories A Chronicle Of The Madness Of Small Worlds. The term “muazzez” refers to an enigmatic extraterrestrial world where all of the residents are deserted cigar factories. The factories can talk and express feelings (yes, strange as it may sound, the protagonist is a building). The narrator and sole actor on stage plays one of these factories. He shares with the audience his thoughts and information he receives from a fellow deserted factory nearby.
Maxamoo
Intentionally designed for the simplest setting, actor Steve Mellor sits at a table and speaks directly to the audience, with minimal motion for the entirety of the show. Mellor’s doughy face and his intense speeches create a contrast that is playful and captivating. Wellman’s writing is eloquent and the script is imaginative. The narration drifts and dissolves smoothly, making comments on a wide range of subjects but always returning to the central theme of solitude and the futility of the factory’s life. The piece is heavy and gloomy but also beautiful.
Public Opinion
The public is obviously excited about the show as tickets to the remaining performances are sold out as of January 11, 2014, and many of those who have seen the show are raving about it.
From Twitter: @dantherriault : Just saw MUAZZEZ @TheChocoFactry Actor Steve Mellor brilliant in Mac Wellman’s play. Wallace Shawn there, too. #theatre #screenwriting
@Burklund: Drop everything and grab one of the last remaining tix to Muazzez @TheChocoFactry. Elegant, breakneck, lingual wizardry.
@hfgerardo: Fairly sure you’ll never meet a more erudite abandoned cigar factory than Steve Mellor’s portrayal in Mac Wellman’s #MUAZZEZ @TheChocofactry
Critic Reviews
Before the festivals started, many critics listed Muazzez as one of the productions to watch. Enthusiasm for the production continues in critical reviews of the show.
TimeOut New York
[A]lthough Mellor is an exquisite storyteller, much of the text remains stubbornly literary, without the theatrical heft to support the existential crisis it details. Muazzez would make a fine half of a double bill; alone, it seems a small world after all.
Exeunt Magazine
Its pleasures are quiet and understated, but genuine.
Infinite Body
I am completely won over by this “succession a stratigraphic variorum,” this “placing of jars and jarring of places” and Mellor’s virtuoso performance that charges and populates nearly bare space with the high Eulalian magic(k) of words.
NYTheater Now
This strange tale is oddly moving even in its absurdity.
New York Theater Review
Muazzez is dense and heady, and also quite humorous
TICKETS
$15 (Click here for tickets)
DATES
January 7 – 17, 2014
LOCATION
The Chocolate Factory
5-49 49th Ave, Long Island City, Queens
New York City
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RUNNING TIME
45 minutes, no intermission
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written and directed by Mac Wellman
Featuring Steve Mellor