Nature Theater of Oklahoma (USA) Burt Turrido: An Opera

About

In Burt Turrido: An Opera, Nature Theater of Oklahoma created an opera for the first time. They tell us the story of an isolated society with humorous existentialism: a shipwrecked man is rescued just before he drowns by a beautiful and mysterious woman – perhaps she is a phantom or a mermaid? – who brings him ashore on the last bit of land that is left. Stripped of its vegetation and populated by its former inhabitants' ghosts, the island (formerly known as Greenland) is now ruled by a despotic King and Queen. They call the shipwrecked man Burt Turrido and initially make him their slave, though when he proves incapable of fulfilling this role, they make him their prisoner. However, because this is an opera, the tragedy does not stop here: additional ingredients include a catastrophic storm, an immaculate conception, a murder, a love triangle, a mock execution, a birth, an alien invasion complete with abduction – and this opera won't be over until finally somebody is impaled on a narwhal tusk.

Nature Theater of Oklahoma is a New York award-winning art and performance group under the direction of Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper, founded in 2004. With each new project, they attempt to set an impossible challenge for themselves and the audience - working from inside the codes and confines of established genres and exploding them. No two projects are formally the same, but the work is always full of humor, earnestness, rigor, and the audience plays an essential role - whether as spectators or as participants in the work. Using readymade material, found space, gifted properties, cosmic accident, extreme formal manipulation and plain hard work. Nature Theater of Oklahoma makes art to affect a shift in the perception of everyday reality that extends beyond the site of performance and into the world in which we live.

They will stop in Prague during their European tour.

Members of the Nature Theater of Oklahoma Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska will lead a workshop at the NT Drama rehearsal room on December 7 and 8, 2021.