“SHUT UP AND LOVE ME”
July 24 – August 25 2001
WESTBETH THEATRE CENTER
KAREN FINLEY GETS OFF
(OFF-BROADWAY, THAT IS!)
SHUT UP AND LOVE ME
TRANSFERS TO WESTBETH THEATRE CENTER
5 Week Limited Engagement! 21 Shows! July 24 – August 25
hypnotic, funny, irritating and finally — in an odd way — cathartic.
— Ben Brantley, New York Times
bravura burlesque… Beneath the salaciousness, the ribaldry, and the disco soundtrack, Finley can still invoke remarkable vulnerability, pathos and beauty — Village Voice
After ending her standing room only engagement in May at P.S. 122, Karen Finley, the most controversial woman in performance today, brings her acclaimed new show SHUT UP AND LOVE ME to Off-Broadway. This ribald collection of pieces about sex will be presented for a five week limited engagement beginning July 24th at Westbeth Theatre Center. The piece will be completely re-invisioned and re-staged for Westbeths mainstage space — all designed to include the audience and put them right in the middle of the action.
In SHUT UP AND LOVE ME, Karen Finley redefines Summer Lovin as she presents her own histrionic version of On The Road. In this veritable banquet of erotic delights, she deconstructs the Electra complex, skewers Winnie The Pooh, and offers her own unique striptease. It is a raw, humorous, and bawdy journey of psychosexual lust and dysfunctional sex with Karen at the wheel. Rudy and his decency commission be damned!
Karen Finley is widely regarded as one of the most relentlessly independent and visceral performance artists of her generation. Crossbreeding theater, performance, spoken word, and visual art, Finleys challenging and darkly humorous work is moving and powerful, edgy and unpredictable.
Since her first performances in the early 1980s, Karen Finley has become synonymous with performance art. She is the recipient of two Obies, two Bessies, and multiple grants from the NEA and NYSCA. She has toured internationally with pieces including The American Chestnut, A Certain Level of Denial and The Return of The Chocolate Smeared Woman. In 1990, Finley became an unwilling symbol for the NEA when she, along with Tim Miller, Holly Hughes & John Fleck, sued the NEA for withdrawing grants on the grounds of indecency. Finleys recent projects include: A Different Kind of Intimacy: The Collected Writings of Karen Finley, Pooh Unplugged, and a spread in Playboy Magazine.
SHUT UP AND LOVE ME runs July 24 – August 25, Wednesday – Saturday at 8:00pm with a preview performance Tues., July 24. Tickets are $30 – $35. Westbeth Theatre Center is located at 151 Bank Street, north of 11th Street and west of Hudson. For further information call 212-741-0391. Tickets may be purchased by calling TicketMaster at 212-307-4100. Special offers available in person at WTC’s box office only.
Westbeth Theatre Center
151 Bank Street
New York, NY 10014
Box Office Line (212) 741 – 0391
Box Office Hours: M – F 12 – 6pm
Saturdays 2 – 6pm
Ticketmaster (212) 307-4100
