Lee, who is represented with her 2012 work Untitled Feminist Show (running Sept. 19-21 at 480 S. Broad St.), is—like Elevator Repair Service—one of the leading voices in New York’s alternative theater scene and one of the most unpredictable artists working in America today. A co-presentation with the University of the Arts, Untitled is described by Lee as representing “a small part of a utopian feminist experience.” Her first play without words is structured as a series of rituals. Lee, who also directs, describes the show as her most accessible. All the performers are nude, which Lee says is to discourage the audience from making assumptions about the characters’ identities based on their clothing. “For me, fluidity of identity is an acknowledgement that we can’t shove people into categories,” she tells PW. “If you are assigned the female gender at birth, then you grow up being constantly made to feel inadequate, inferior to men and ashamed of your body and appearance.” Although five of the six characters represent themselves as female, Lee says that “all the performers represent people who don’t suffer from feelings of inferiority and shame. They take on whatever gendered identities they want without feeling limited by defined gender roles.”
(via Live Arts Shows Examine the Woman’s Body Politic | Arts and Culture | Philadelphia Weekly)
