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FRINGE REVIEW: Ghost Sonata
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts
Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get.
Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocketsized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for
real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Ghost Sonata
GROUP: Homunculus, Inc.
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Sun., Sept. 9, 2 p.m.
CLOSES: Sept. 16
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: A vampiric cook. A mummy in a closet. The ghost of a wetnurse. An elderly enigma set on revenge. And a messianic student who stumbles into the
collapsing web of cruelty, greed, and lies uniting these characters. Join the struggle for salvation
in this eccentric and immersive adaption of Strindberg.
WE THINK: The dissonance between the grim Ghost Sonata and the spectacular late-summer
weather may have been too much to overcome. The cast bears no fault for alienating the
audience; Hugh Trimble, in particular, is riveting as the extraordinarily sinister Old Man. As The
Student, Patrick Scheid earns our empathy, which should make it all the more jolting when we
learn the depth of the horrors visited upon him and the secret society he longs to join.
But maybe the company set its expectations of the audience too high for its “immersive”
adaptation of August Strindberg’s 1908 chamber play. We could believe, with little trouble, that
the creepy residents of a cursed condo complex belonged in the darkness of PhilaMOCA, but
though the room had been staged to erase the physical boundaries between cast and crowd, we
21st-century dwellers were feeling way too good to fully settle into the space, and too eager to
flee back into the sunny afternoon the second the house lights came up.
—M.J. Fine
Treats of the Philly Fringe: THE GHOST
SONATA and THE MAIDS
Written by Christopher Munden. Posted in Professional Theatre, Reviews
http://www.stagemagazine.org/2012/09/treats-of-the-philly-fringe-the-ghost-sonata-and-the-maids/
One of the great things about the Fringe Festival is the opportunity to see independent companies
perform works unlikely to be attempted by more established theater groups. This year brought
two pieces I’ve long desired to see: THE MAIDS by Jean Genet and GHOST SONATA by
August Strindberg.
Of course, there’s often a reason why a play is rarely attempted. Genet excessively embraced
fellow Frenchman Charles Baudelaire’s command to épater le bourgeoisie (shock the middle
classes). Strindberg’s later works are dense and inaccessible, their meanings opaque and open to
interpretation. One can’t help but admire companies with the gumption just to stage such pieces;
to do so successfully, as both have done, is even more admirable.
THE MAIDS director Francine Roussel (also French!) has presented a worthy exploration of
Genet’s themes of sexuality and morality. Actors Jim Ludlum and Danny Ryan have great turns
as men playing women, but not men-in-drag.
THE GHOST SONATA posed an even more difficult problem. It begins with an earnest student
(Patrick Scheid) looking longingly at an aristocratic house. When an unsettling benefactor (Hugh
Trimble) offers to help him enter the world for which he yearns, the student seizes the chance.
But despite outward appearances, the bourgeois world is one of perfidy and pretense, with rotten
values and people exemplified by a closet-dwelling mummy and a ghostly mistress.
A brief synopsis hardly captures the entrancing mystery of the play. A theatrical “sonata” of
emotive movements and themes, the work is confounding but captivating; aggressively truthful
in its bleak worldview. Thinking on the “paradise” he had longed for in the first scene, the
student laments, “Here I saw a Colonel who was no colonel. I had a generous benefactor who
was a robber and had to hang himself… Where is beauty to be found? Where do we find honor
and faith? In fairytales and childish fancies. Where can I find anything that keeps its promise?
Only in my own imagination.” To Strindberg even love, “the most beautiful flower of all” can be
“more poisonous than any other one.” Strindberg’s condemnation ends not at the core of
bourgeois society but at the center of our existential situation.
GHOST SONATA was written in the first decade of the twentieth century to be performed in the
Swedish master’s aptly named Intimate Theatre in Stockholm. With its small stage and limited
seats, Strindberg’s theater forced his audiences to experience his plays with propinquity unusual
for the time. By forcing the audience to sit on the set and take part in some of the scenes,
director Zach Trebino has recaptured this intimacy for the modern theatergoer, creating a
claustrophobic intensity which helps engage us in this difficult work.
Another Strindberg play, THE CREDITORS, is also part of the Fringe, in a production by
perhaps the best new(ish) company in town, the Philadelphia Artists Collective. This naturalistic
play may make a more accessible introduction to Strindberg. But though neither THE MAIDS
nor GHOST SONATA is fun-filled or easy play, they are worth seeing. When will you next get
the chance?
THE MAIDS
by Jean Genet
Directed by Francine Roussel
Kicking Mule Theatre Company
at the Adrienne Theatre
2030 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA
September 6-9, 2012
Livearts-fringe.ticketleap.com/the-maids
THE GHOST SONATA
By August Strindberg
Directed by Zach Trebino
Humonculus, Inc.
at PhilaMOCA
531 North 12th Street,
Philadelphia, PA
September 6-16, 2012
Livearts-fringe.ticketleap.com/ghost-sonatas
Vital Stats Philly Fringe: Zach Trebino
Posted August 2nd, 2012
A company’s work should speak for itself. As any good marketing mind knows though, the
company name should do some talking as well (see: [ad hoc theatre project]). Take Homunculus
for example, the theatre company who brought Woyzeck to last year’s Fringe, and will present
Ghost Sonata this year; according to Dictionary.com ‘homunculus’ refers to an artificiallyproduced dwarf, made in a flask. Hmmm. Semantics. What we do know is that according to the
company’s Facebook page members hold themselves to five ethics — “to never be didactic, to
never be rote, to never be cavalier, to never be wasteful, and to always be prodigious” — though
should rumors of heading an illicit trade of Shrinky Dink-sized humans be true, their morals
could be compromised. On this and other things Artistic Director Zach Trebino spoke.
Name: Zach Trebino.
Age: 23.
Where were you born? Carmel, New York.
Where do you live now? South Philly.
Show Title: Ghost Sonata.
Explain your performance in 2 sentences. To an 8-year-old. Welcome to the house of wasted
and wasting lives; you are now among the living dead. Don’t let them eat your soul.
What was your favorite toy as a kid? Caterpillars.
What do you love (or hate) most about Philadelphia audiences? The pressure to answer
properly should be answer enough.
What would you do if you just inherited a pizzeria? Be even more Italian.
Did you go to college or grad school? If so, where? Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.
Marvel Comics, or DC? Neil Gaiman.
What’s your favorite nickname for Philadelphia? Quaker City.
What’s the worst piece of advice you ever received? Did you follow it? Size doesn’t
matter. Yes.
What’s the most disgusting thing you’ve ever seen on SEPTA? A woman feed her child a
Slim Jim for breakfast.
Do you have relatives more famous than you? My great uncle Jerry. He was known as Jerry
“The Wolf” Boccia. He murdered his brother.
Ghost Sonata runs September 6, 10, and 13 at 7:00 pm, September 7, 8, 14, 15 at 9:00 pm,
September 8 and 15 at 4:00 pm, and September 9 and 16 at 2:00 pm at PhilaMOCA, 531 North
12th Street. $10.
–Audrey McGlinchy
Homunculus Inc. presents “Ghost Sonata”
http://www.knightarts.org/community/philadelphia/homunculus-ghost-sonata
Published on September 11, 2012 by Chip Schwartz in 2011 Philadelphia Winners, Knight Arts
Challenge Philadelphia, Philadelphia
Homunculus Inc. – the Philadelphia-based theater company – is currently participating in the
Philly Fringe Festival (a Knight Arts grantee) with its brand new translation and adaptation of
August Strindberg’s classic chamber play “Ghost Sonata.” The haunting play will aptly take
place at the Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art (PhilaMOCA) through September 16.
This production of “Ghost Sonata” is directed by Zach Trebino with costumes by Angela
Palaggi, sets by Kyle Stetz, sound by Austen Brown and a cast of nine local actors. The action
takes place in a dilapidated world of broken dreams and double-crossing which subsequently
leads to revenge and further existential decay. Following the trials of a young student, the
viewers get pulled along into a convoluted drama full of betrayal and deceit.
After going out of his way to assist at the site of a house collapse, the student encounters a timid
milkmaid who provides him with a drink before dashing off. In a daze, the young man then
meets Jacob Hummel, a former associate of his father. The wheelchair-bound Hummel offers the
boy a job so that he may gain access to a majestic old house he has admired for some time. Once
inside, the student discovers there is a lot more to the deal than meets the eye.
A view of the “Ghost Sonata” set.
In the home, the audience discovers vampires, ghosts, a colonel and a mummy trapped in a
closet. Homunculus has arranged the play so that the cast and the patrons interact directly and
they invite the theatergoers to explore the space; there is no stage in the traditional sense. With
such an immersive environment, both the actors and the attendees are challenged by the
complete absence of boundaries.
The set is full of gray bureaus, lopsided tables and deathly-looking plants, the slanted tables and
wobbly chairs bringing to mind German expressionist films like the “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.”
These dismal surroundings and the morbid cast of characters come together to create a
production that makes us all question our purpose in a world of drudgery. With talk of keeping
the filth of life at a distance, self-reflection is inevitable. While the characters recall their deeds
and misdeeds, the onlookers do as well.
The student and the young girl argue on the bed.
Although the subject matter is powerful and dark, the play exists as a major text in the
development of modernist theater, and is further updated by Homunculus to a performance
which lacks a fourth wall almost entirely. Not a lighthearted tale by any means, the experience
leaves a heavy introspection which lingers even after the action has ceased. The adaption of
“Ghost Sonata” by Homunculus Inc. is as ghastly as it is engaging and offers a great sample of
some of the things going on around the Fringe of Philadelphia theater.
PhilaMOCA is located at 531 N. 12th St., Philadelphia. Call the Live Arts and Philly Fringe
at 215-413-1318; facebook.com/HomunculusInc.
Philadelphia Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival
September 05, 2012|Myra Yellin Outwater, Special to The Morning Call
Since 1997, the Philadelphia Live Arts and Philly Fringe Festival has been offering hundreds of
emerging artists a forum and a stage. This year's festival, which opens Friday and runs through
Sept. 22, features several companies with local ties.
Homunculus Inc., a new theater collective formed by Muhlenberg College alumni, will take a
new look at Scandinavian master August Strindberg's "Ghost Sonata."
Strindberg's play reveals the journey of an idealistic young student who becomes trapped in a
moldering web of resentment, lies, cruelty and greed. Director and founder Muhlenberg graduate
Zach Trebino says the fable is "populated by ghosts, slaves, vampires and bankers."
He says he was inspired by German expressionism, and imagines this production as "The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" meets "Grimm's Fairytales."
"Our production is going to be surreal, experiential and grotesquely humorous. The audience will
be completely immersed in the world Homunculus Inc. creates," says Trebino. "It will be like a
choose-your-own adventure experience. The audience will roam free and function as a group of
homeless apparitions, just as present and included in the world of the play as the characters
Strindberg wrote."
•Homunculus Inc., "Ghost Sonata," Sept. 6-16, PhilaMOCA, 531 N. 12th St. Tickets: $10.
"Ghost Sonata" is intended for mature audiences only; violence and sexua
PHILADELPHIA: Worshiping at the altar of outrageous
The author gets through her end-of-summer blues by getting ready for
Philly Fringe
DATE POSTED: Thursday, August 30, 2012 7:05 PM EDT
By Ilene Dube
Even though going back to school is a distant memory, I still feel sad about the end of summer. No more
long days, dog days, fireflies, swimming into infinity; no more corn, tomatoes and watermelon; no more
sweat dripping down my brow as I swat at mosquitoes and weed around the kale skeletons the groundhog
left behind. The body stiffens with the approach of long dark days and winter coats.
One remedy for dealing with summer’s end is the Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe, Sept. 1-23. Art
is my religion, and attending these performances is how I genuflect.
Originally founded as the Philly Fringe in 1997, LAFPF has evolved to include international and local
artists and has thoroughly re-energized the city. The award-winning, critically acclaimed festival is a
generator of new work, often breaking ground in performing arts.
This year promises more than 650 events from 140 artists in 16 days. There’s dance, music, visual art,
film, happenings (including a Kabbalah salon and a graveyard cabaret), comedy, even deadly serious
stuff. It’s cross-disciplinary, provocative, contemporary, bursting with wild creativity — and fun!
I have attended performances on an abandoned pier, inside a shipping container, and at the bottom of an
old swimming pool — yes, there was water.
As much as I look forward to attending anywhere from eight to 12 live performances in three weekends,
planning can be stressful. Some time in mid-summer the Bible arrives — a 122-page guide, in 8-point
type, to the programs. The festival organizers offer everything you need to know, but TMI. Between
deadlines, I’d never get around to planning in time to get tickets.
I have been blessed in matrimony. The spouse actually enjoys poring over the catalog and planning
what we’ll see. He relishes the control — when else do I sit back and allow him to make all decisions?
I acknowledge and give thanks for his mastery of this skill. And others do too — no less than an artist, a
former museum director, and a tour leader with Greater Philadelphia Tourism and Marketing Corp.
contact us to get the spouse’s recommendations.
If you’re a serious festival attendee, hitting three shows on a given day, it can be a challenge getting
from one part of the city to another. The spouse figures it out so we concentrate on different
neighborhoods — Old City, Northern Liberties, Rittenhouse Square, Avenue of the Arts — in a single
day. He even plans breaks around our favorite Philadelphia eateries.
So, dear reader, now that I have secured all my tickets, I share with you the best of the best of this
year’s Fringe Festival.
Bang by Charlotte Ford: A comedic-clown-theater answer to the question, “What happens if you get
what you want?” Charlotte Ford, Lee Etzold and Sarah Sanford (of Pig Iron Theatre Company) take the
stage for a no-holds barred, sexually explicit exploration of nudity, desire, gender roles and sexual
arousal.
Zero Cost House by Pig Iron Theatre Company and Toshiki Okada: A dream of radical change, thinks
Toshiki Okada while reading Walden from his home in Tokyo. A beautiful book, but only a dream. Then
3/11 happens — those numbers will, for a generation of Japanese people, stand for the earthquake,
tsunami, and subsequent nuclear disaster at Fukushima.
Ghost Sonata by Homunculus Inc.: A vampiric cook, a mummy in a closet, the ghost of a wet-nurse, an
elderly enigma set on revenge and a messianic student who stumbles into the collapsing web of cruelty,
greed and lies unite these characters.
Red-Eye to Havre de Grace by Thaddeus Phillips: Innovative stage director Thaddeus Phillips teams up
with the musical duo Wilhelm Bros. & Co. to produce an action-opera that follows the odd details
surrounding Edgar Allan Poe’s last days, when he set out on a lecture tour from Virginia to New York
and, days later, a train conductor saw him in Havre de Grace, Md., wearing a stranger’s clothing.
Arguendo by Elevator Repair Service: Used by lawyers and judges in courtrooms, arguendo is a Latin
word meaning for the sake of argument. Elevator Repair Service, heralded during several Princeton
performances, turns its unique theatrical perspective on Barnes v. Glen Theatre, a 1991 First Amendment
case brought by a group of naked go-go dancers. The justices debate whether erotic dancing is protected
speech under the U.S. Constitution.
27 by New Paradise Laboratories: Welcome to the afterlife, where the laws of the universe are ignored,
life is brilliant, victory means self-destruction in the most pleasurable way possible, and defeat means
fading from view. New Paradise Laboratories returns to its roots in this live performance accompanied by
original music by Alec MacLaughlin.
Tomorrow I will Start a New Life: In this minimalist mono-drama inspired by Ivan Goncharov’s novel
Oblomov, the beautiful Aleksandra is daydreaming about changing her life. Through a landscape of
remembrances of a happy childhood she has to find the answer to the existential question: to act or not to
act; to stay or move on.
Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech: From acclaimed Japanese playwright-director
Roshiki Okada comes a triptych of interconnected stories that capture the malaise of young, low-level
office workers who debate what restaurant to order food from for their laid-off co-worker’s final day.
The Gate Reopened by JUNK: One of the most popular Live Arts Festival shows of all time returns,
newly imagined. The Gate Reopened takes over Pier 9, a municipal warehouse on the Delaware River
where international steamers once docked. With theater-in-the-round seating, audiences encircle eight
dancers in what has become a futuristic, post-industrial, post-apocalyptic coliseum.
Information about performance times, ticket prices and venues can be found at www.livearts-fringe.org.