In light of today’s sad announcement from Incubator Arts Project that it will not be renewing its lease (due to rising costs of running a nonprofit), the theatre world sure could use a pick-me-up. And just in time, a ragtag band of artists known as the Letter of Marquee (LOM) Theatre Company are putting on a show. It’s Passover, so your reaction of course, is “What makes this show different from all other shows?” Well for starters, it’s free. And it’s taking place in bars across Brooklyn starting next Tuesday. And it also involves pirates.
Letter of Marquee’s show, Bully Me Down, is billed as a “time-bending, interwoven epic,” about “what it means to be respected, what it means to be a hero and just how far we’ll go to play the victim.” Hopefully it lives up to its own hype—but even if it doesn’t, the shows are free and there’s no reservation required! Performances of Bully Me Down starts at 8pm at each bars, starting with Park Slope’s The 5th Estate (506 5th Avenue) on Tuesday, April 22 and Wednesday April 23, and then moving to the following venues:
Whole Foods (214 3rd Street): April 28*
Freddy’s (627 5th Avenue): April 29, 30
Hank’s Saloon (46 3rd Avenue): May 4, 5
Breucklen Colony (274 4th Avenue): May 6, 7
Draft Barn (530 3rd Avenue): May 12, 13
The KBH (84 St. Marks Pl): May 14
Lulu’s (113 Franklin Avenue): May 19, 20
Branded (603 Vanderbilt Avenue): May 21
*7pm start
You can get a full schedule and the happy hour deals you can get during the shows here, where you’ll also see the schedule includes a couple of non-bar and non-Brooklyn shows. Technically, each show will be a very different experience as the venues change. And since there’s no admission and no RSVP, you really could go as many times as you like. Make sure to call the babysitter, though: the show’s content has a 21+ rating from the company (even on that one night where they do it at the Whole Foods).
While I don’t know how I feel about Letter of Marquee’s mission statement calling me part of a ‘wayward generation’—seriously, we’re not that misguided—it sounds like these politically-minded thespians have a fair bit of chutzpah to share. So check ’em out through May 22nd. Ah, nothing like a dose of pirate-themed satire to woo my wayward hartie.