James Hannaham, Rinne Groff, Susie Sokol, Scott Shepherd. Photo by John Collins


Susie Sokol. Photo by Alison Cornyn

Scott Shepherd. Photo by Alison Cornyn

Shut Up I Tell You
(I Said Shut Up I Tell You)

Shut Up I Tell You (I Said Shut Up I Tell You) draws on two wildly divergent sources and stirs them together. A collection of obscure radio horror stories which found its way fortuitously into the company’s hands forms the basis for part one of the piece. A series of stage adaptations of these radio plays, part one is a slapstick romp through a set piled with forgotten furniture, electric garbage cans and old dot-matrix printers that play “cats” and talk back when spoken to.

Part Two takes the awkward, amateurish and hilariously twisted style of part one and applies it to a narrative of the company’s own making. The plot, laced with details uncovered in the group’s research into secret societies, revolves around a hapless architect stumbling on to a masonic sect. The second act resolves itself in a battle to the death between our hero the architect and her very unlikely foe, the Worshipful Master of the local lodge.

 

Press

Artforum March 1996

Shut Up I Tell You (I Said Shut Up I Tell You)
P.S. 122



Ensemble

  • Rinne Groff
  • James Hannaham
  • Scott Shepherd
  • Susie Sokol
  • John Collins
 
  • Director John Collins and Steve Bodow
  • Lighting Designer Clay Shirky
  • Sound Designer Blake Koh and John Collins
  • Choreographer Katherine Profeta, ERS
  • Costume Designer Colleen Werthmann
  • Stage Manager Susan Bowen