Hallucinating History

Wed., July 21, 7 p.m., free, Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St., 215-413-9006, livearts-fringe.org.

by Will Stone

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Published: Jul 14, 2010

theater

Picture a dark, fermented chapter in our nation's history, Lincoln's final days in the White House, where factious murk settled over the American political landscape. Now jump ahead to the year 2012, to a not-so-distant, not-so-dissimilar future in which an ideological maelstrom has shredded left- and right-wing allegiances alike, leaving only a fringe of extremists following in the spectral footsteps of John Wilkes Booth. These uncanny worlds come together in a co-production by New York-based Riot Group and Philly's own New Paradise Laboratory; the cast, along with director Whit MacLaughlin and playwright Adriano Shaplin, will present a meet-the-artist event in anticipation of the full performance of the companies' upcoming Live Arts show, Freedom Club. Focusing on the tug-and-pull of American liberty, the play time-travels between kinky séances in the Lincoln White House and the violent radicalism of today — two worlds that bridge the gulf of history. As Shaplin says, "Imagining the past is not unlike hallucinating the future."

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