So Many Ideas

So Many Ide­as is a per­for­mance that explo­res a moral cri­sis we can­not quite name: a silent, self-des­truc­ti­ve malai­se, an obscu­re calamity.

Set in a crumbling ports­ide hotel room at the edge of their civi­liza­ti­on, three women—one ter­mi­nal­ly ill—take refu­ge in their shared space. One plays the vio­lin almost absent­min­dedly, ano­ther sings, while the other murm­urs, dreams, pleads and remem­bers. Tog­e­ther, their words over­lap, com­ple­te, and chall­enge one ano­ther like a Baro­que cadenza—a reflec­tion of cul­tu­re, a ner­vous tic, an urgent search for mea­ning: how they got the­re; how we all got here.

Dra­wing inspi­ra­ti­on from Paul Bow­les’ The Shel­te­ring Sky, Wal­lace Shawn’s The Fever, and musi­cal­ly from Handel’s Giu­lio Cesa­re in Egit­to, So Many Ide­as con­fronts the pre­sent moment: in a world over­flowing with bril­li­ance, beau­ty, and invention—so many choices, so much creativity—why do we keep ending up in the same places, with so litt­le to show for it?