Originally published on BroadwayWorld by Chloe Rabinowitz.
New Relic Theatre, a Brooklyn-based performing arts company, will present the world premiere of In the Mouth of the Beast, written by Baylee Shlichtman.
In the Mouth of the Beast will open in New York following readings at The Vagrancy in Los Angeles and as a finalist in Urbanite Theatre's Modern New Works Festival in Sarasota. The play follows father/daughter cave explorers Nel and Apa on a forbidden expedition into "the Maw" to search for a mysterious source of clean energy. As they descend, the rational world fractures and the laws of physics melt away. Their journey melds Ancient Greek drama, Taíno folklore, and cosmic horror to a crystalline question: who would you sacrifice to save everything?
"We are so excited to cap off our 2024 Season with Baylee's play," said artistic director Eliza Palter. "In the Mouth of the Beast draws from Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis, and deals with many of the same themes from its own unique direction. Not only is this an extraordinary work that grapples with climate change, what we owe our parents and our children, and the limits of our scientific knowledge, but it's also an opportunity for us to expand upon our original mission in a way that's true to our interest in classic texts."
In the Mouth of the Beast was selected as the winner of New Relic's 2024 Mythopoeia Call, which encouraged playwrights to engage with myth as a connection to both our distant past and a more enchanted present. Read more about the call and explore the other playwrights honored as finalists.
In the Mouth of the Beast will be directed by Eliza Palter and produced by Chris Phillips. This limited run of just five performances will run at MITU580 (580 Sackett St., Ground Floor, Brooklyn NY 11217) from October 17-20, 2024 (8pm 10/17, 10/18, 10/19) and 3pm (10/19, 10/20). Performances will run about 90 minutes; there will be no intermission. Tickets are from $33 and can be purchased at newrelictheatre.org/upcoming.
Baylee Shlichtman writes weird and magical plays about navigating relationships and autonomy. She is on the board of the Orange County Playwrights Alliance, the facilitator for the Wayward Artist's EMBARK New Play Cohort, and a part of the Flamboyán Emerging Writers Project. Her work has been read or developed with AlterTheatre Ensemble, Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble, Curtis Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre/ LA, The Larking House, Long Beach Shakespeare Company, OC-Centric New Play Festival, Playground-LA, South Texas College Latinx New Play Festival, The Vagrancy Theatre, The Wayward Artist, and The Workshop Theatre, among others. She graduated from USC with a B.A. in Journalism.
Eliza Palter is a Texas-born director and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. She has directed, assistant directed, devised, and produced shows for various companies and theatres, including LubDub Theatre Company, Union Hall, and Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City, Theatre J in Washington D.C., the Transmigration Festival for New Works in Cincinnati, and Švandovo Divadlo in Prague. She is also the founder and artistic director of New Relic Theatre, a production company that stages adaptations of classical plays and ancient texts. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre & Performance Studies and Anthropology from Georgetown University.
New Relic Theatre presents plays that honor the vividness of the human experience-ancient and modern, well-remembered and near-forgotten. NRT engages artists and audiences alike with unexpected, lush, and playful work that recontextualizes the theatrical canon, and believes theatre must be collaborative and accessible to all-no matter how heightened or historically removed the source text.
