Richard Maxwell and The N.Y.C. Players
The End Of Reality

You are almost relieved when evil suddenly appears in the room. Unexpected and in the persona of a cheap B-movie intruder overpowering all of the uniformed security guards in slow motion, kidnapping one of them and leaving the rest behind nonplussed and badly discouraged. At least you know now that they really do exist: menace, danger, evil! At last, there is a reason for the omnipresence of fear felt in advance!

But before that, we have had a deep look into the heart of a security firm, a place we easily recognise as our Western world: the images of surveillance cameras, people who earn their money with other people's fears and who are full of them themselves. We heard their banal, parroted, aborted conversations, that circle around the invisible lurking enemy, necessary defence measures and survival strategies, but hardly ever deal with feelings and thoughts.

Maxwell, cult director of the New York Off-Off-Broadway, represents minimalist theatre with his New York City Players, using terse dialogues and reduced expression to convey all the more complex subject matter. The banality of American everyday life is the material for his penetrating, intense theatre.

"The End of Reality" is a parable of a frightened society in which the rhetoric and practice of fear and control have long since become part of the private sphere - an unusual, provocative blend of early evening series, action film, social study and politico-cultural essay on the current state of the USA.

Autorin / Autor, Text: Richard Maxwell
Regie: Richard Maxwell
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Thomas Bradshow
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Makeda Christodoulos
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Alex Delinois
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: James Fletcher
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Sibyl Kempson
Schauspielerin / Schauspieler: Brian Mendes