Home / Arts and Entertainment / Agitprop Ballet: 'Lefty' Revived with Song & Dance
Agitprop Ballet: 'Lefty' Revived with Song & Dance
3 Nov
Summary
- Revived play 'Waiting for Lefty' becomes a dream ballet.
- New music and choreography enhance Odets's classic agitprop.
- 'Specky Clark' blends biography, myth, and dance theater.
Clifford Odets's 1932 play "Waiting for Lefty" has been reimagined as a "workers' dream ballet" at Classic Stage Company. Director Steven Pasquale weaves new music by Yeller Tooth and choreography by Susan Misner into the original agitprop one-act, transforming a union meeting debate into a communal performance.
The production features actor-musicians performing labor and protest songs, including "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" and "Bread and Roses." These musical numbers and dance sequences, like Zach McNally's powerful solo during "Carpal Tunnel," explore the struggles and resilience of workers.
Separately, Oona Doherty's "Specky Clark" at the Irish Arts Center presents a phantasmagorical dance-theater piece. It chronicles her great-great-grandfather's difficult childhood in a Belfast slaughterhouse, blending biography, myth, and experimental music by Lankum.
"Specky Clark" uses contorted choreography and striking soundscapes to depict a raw, often brutal, narrative. The show culminates in a powerful dance sequence set to The Specials' "Ghost Town," exploring themes of the supernatural and the enduring spirit in the face of hardship.
