The Public Theater Presents ‘LUCINE! or birdshit: a human concerto with string & void’
By Afton MarkayThe Public Theater presents the new experimental work by Christian De Gré Cárdenas,”LUCINE! or birdshit: a human concerto with string & void.”
While not an operetta in the traditional sense, “LUCINE!” draws on operatic logic, musical structure, and character-driven theatricality. Bethany Geraghty and Eric Eaton perform in the work scored for voice and cello. Gama Valle directs.
De Gré Cárdenas, the Executive Director of Heartbeat Opera, specializes in hybrid operettas and human concertos, challenge convention and sanity in equal measure. The composer says, “The story moves through memory, regret, satire, and surrender as Lucine transforms into the people who shaped—and shattered—her: her undying mother Luna, her infuriatingly supportive husband Elio, her tender lover Rahuil, her sharp-edged daughter Solana, her overworked attendant Tuba, and the ghost of a Confederate grandmother she never met. Each movement echoes a lunar phase, building a rhythm of renewal and disintegration. The cello—Lucine’s only companion on stage—becomes a proxy for the emotions she cannot voice. All of it unfolds two years and two days before the apocalypse—a countdown as personal as it is planetary.”
“LUCINE!” was awarded Best Play with Music at the 2024 New York City Fringe Festival where it was workshopped in April 2024.
This performance is set for April 29, at 7 p.m.
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