[lbo-talk] The Loneliness Of Noam Chomsky (a performance)

[C. G. Estabrook]

I saw Brooks and Verdecchia do "The Noam Chomsky Lectures" at the Theatre
Passe Muraille in Toronto in the days of Bush I (and I have a copy
somewhere). It was quite good, juxtaposing a Chomskyan take on world
politics with Toronto theatre chat and the immigrant and cosmopolitan
nature of that city.  A new production in Chicago, Boston, SF or NY would
require substantial updating and cultural translation. --CGE

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004, Arash wrote:


> >[no idea what this is like...]
> Please forward and post...  For a lovely graphic visit
> http://chomsky.8m.com TIXE, a chashama arts space at 113 W 42nd
> Street, presents another Butane Group/WestWell Production THE
> LONELINESS OF NOAM CHOMSKY (a performance
> 
> I wonder if this production is related to any of these:
> 
> http://www.mit.edu/~saleem/ivory/ch6.htm Like any popular
> intellectual, Chomsky is the subject of myths, gossip and
> storytelling, although in his case the source of such stories even
> includes poems ("Old Man Chomsky") and even several plays, which are
> fascinating events in themselves. In 1991 Daniel Brooks[7] and
> Guillermo Verdecchia[8] published a play which was inspired by Noam
> Chomsky's (and Edward Herman's) "language and analysis", called The
> Noam Chomsky Lectures[9]. It had been performed for the first time as
> part of the Buddies in Bad Times Rhubard! Festival at the Annex
> Theatre in Toronto, in February 1990, and was then expanded for the
> World Stage Festival in July of 1990; the text that became the book is
> based upon a version presented from March 12-32 at the Backspace,
> Theatre Passe Muraille. Chomsky himself commented on it, suggesting
> that "Maybe a new genre is in the making", while the Socialist Worker
> described the text as "an anti-imperialist primer" and Theatrum stated
> that "it reaffirms the theatre as a place of dissent". These reviews
> suggest that when Chomsky's work is appropriated artistically it can
> have beyond the pale of linguistics and politics, and into the world
> of literature and theatre. Another work was undertaken by the Groupe
> de Creation Theatrale Mecanique Generale in Montreal, called "Chomsky,
> quelques bruits et la danse de Saint-Guy: Derives hallucinatoires
> d'une activiste". This play, never published, is the comical story of
> gangsters who kidnap Chomsky but are unable to find anyone willing to
> pay the ransom (!). It was developed by Luc Dansereau and performed by
> Estelle Clareton, Michele Dansereau, Michel Cote and Luc Dansereau
> from the 28th of April until the 2nd of May 1998.