Top: Rick Bennett as Goering and Mikhail Horowitz as Spinoza in a rehearsal for Midget in a Catsuit Reciting Spinoza, opening this weekend in Woodstock. Photo provided by the Woodstock Players. Above: Carey Harrison talking about the play in a video posted on YouTube.
This weekend, playwright Carey Harrison, the artistic director of The Woodstock Players, will toss Nazis, historical figures, immortality, Jewish identity, and a bunch of "pantomime rats" together in his latest play, the surreal-sounding Midget in a Catsuit Reciting Spinoza. Midget enjoys its world premiere this Friday at the Byrdcliffe Theater, and, in addition to all the disparate items listed above, will also include some "nudity of a non-sexual nature."
That's a lot of stuff to pack into a play that's largely about the Holocaust. A press release about the show sent out by the Woodstock Players describes how it all comes together dramatically:
Opening June 17 at the Byrdcliffe Theater and running two weekends, the play is a surreal romp with historical figures—Dali, Einstein, Hitler, Goering, and Spinoza himself—mingling in startling fashion.
Carey Harrison (son of Rex) brings his intelligence, wit, and British wackiness to a story performed by a mix of local and New York City actors, including Mikhail Horowitz, Mick O'Brien, Kris Lundberg, Andrea Maddox, Phillip Levine, Rick Bennett, Violet Snow, Neil Howard, Terri Mateer, and Marcus O'Really.
The 17th century Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, too radical for his time, has been cursed by the Elders of his native Amsterdam to live forever - and, as the Eternal Jew, experience to the full his heretical belief that life and death are fundamentally the same thing. Now it's 1937, and Spinoza is 305 years old and sick of living. But, as decreed by the curse, while there are Jews, he has to live.
When he hears about Hitler's attempt to exterminate the Jews, Spinoza delivers himself to the Gestapo in the hope that he can vanish with his race. But will he? Can he? The painter Salvador Dali, a friend of Spinoza's, tells the story of his own attempt to persuade Hermann Goering to rescue Spinoza from the death camps. Midget In A Catsuit Reciting Spinoza is a tale of triumph, of a race that genocide could not eliminate, and a thinker whose liberal philosophy still inspires us today.
It's also a play within a play, filled with characters who are simultaneously other characters: Nazis who are also pantomime rats, a pantomime cat who might also be God, a Nazi puppet-master who is also a pantomime dame, and a pretty girl from Ohio who is also the principal boy and who thinks that she can save the world from imminent disaster by sheer force of her personality.
Midget In A Catsuit Reciting Spinoza runs June 17 to June 26 at the Byrdcliffe Theater, Upper Byrdcliffe Road, Woodstock, New York. Fridays and Saturdays, June 17, 18, 24, 25 at 8 pm; Thursday, June 23 at 8 pm; and Sunday, June 19 and 26 at 3 pm. The press release states "This is a PG-16 play and includes some nudity of a non-sexual nature." Tickets $18, seniors & students $16. Cash or checks only at the door. For more info and tickets, visit www.thewoodstockplayers.com.
