Updated 5 November 2023
Some months ago I consulted Walter Rigdon's Notable Names in the American Theatre (1976), and in a list of "Premieres in America" I found an unexpected reference to a theatrical performance of A Voyage to Arcturus in New York in 1970. It reportedly took place on March 4, 1970, at the Theatre Genesis, at 10th & 2nd in New York City (p. 188).
That's all the information that is found in that book, and sadly, that turns out to be the only reference to the performance that I can find. Thus I still wonder: Who adapted it? Who starred in it? How long was the show? How many performances? How did this version relate to the novel?
I did look around for further details, and only found some contextual information. The Theatre Genesis was an off-off Broadway theater, founded in 1964, for the producing of works by new American playwrights. Located in the East Village, it was housed in St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery. Its most famous playwright was Sam Shepard, among other notables. It was first run by Ralph Cook (an actor and parishioner), who left the theater in 1969. It was then operated as a cooperative for a few more years, and it seems to have ended around 1973-74 when the new leader Murray Mednick moved to Los Angeles. Some of the early history of Theatre Genesis is related in Kembrew Mcleod's The Downtown Pop Underground (2018).
The 1970 performance was probably inspired by the publication of the Ballantine edition of A Voyage to Arcturus, which came out in November 1968.
Anyone know of any other details?
Thanks to Murray Ewing (see comments), here are a few notices from The Village Voice:
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| 26 February 1970, p. 48 |
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| 12 March 1970, p. 50 |
What a great find! There are some adverts in the Village Voice, which are viewable online. Hopefully these links work. This is to a classified ad:
ReplyDeletehttps://books.google.co.uk/books?id=pNpHAAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA27&dq=genesis%20arcturus&pg=PA27#v=onepage&q=genesis%20arcturus&f=false
And this to a display ad:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=otpHAAAAIBAJ&lpg=PA25&dq=genesis%20arcturus&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q=genesis%20arcturus&f=false
Thanks, Murray! I didn't think to look in the Voice. Good catch.
ReplyDeleteSome things really are untraceable. I have remembered that, when I was a youngster living in Coos Bay, Oregon, there was a small gallery in the public library, and for a while therein there was an abstract painting, flame shapes as it seems, called The Lord of the Rings. I have queried a very helpful librarian there without anything being found. (This would have been around 1968.) It might have been by a local or regional artist, and was returned to him or her eventually; anyway I wonder if my memory is correct and if this work survives.
ReplyDeleteDale Nelson
I suppose. you've seen the film, I think made by some Russian students. Do you comment on it, anywhere?
ReplyDeleteNot Russians! It was directed by Bill Holloway. See the obit I wrote for him: http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2014/07/in-memoriam-bill-holloway-1950-2014.html
DeleteA Voyage to Arcturus would seem (a big budget assumed) filmable. If that ever happened, we might get a CGI extravaganza that would not be without interest, but perhaps cede to spectacle what Lindsay would have regarded as the real concerns of his book. Of course, a restrained use of CGI could be great.
DeletePossibly something along the lines of Peter Brook's Mahabharata would be worth considering. In any event I would like to see the production done (like that of Brook) with a strongly multinational, multiethnic cast.
Dale Nelson