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Just Do Art: July 30, 2015

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Photo courtesy South Street Seaport Museum

FREIGHT: THE FIVE INCARNATIONS OF ABEL GREEN

Photo by Nick Graetz
Photo by Nick Graetz

Alphonse Nicholson plays one African-American man given five different fates, in Howard L. Craft’s time-tripping tour of American history. Minstrel, cult leader, FBI informant, struggling actor and out-of-work mortgage broker comprise the titular “Incarnations,” within whose abilities and limitations Abel Green must navigate the gray areas of the American Dream.

 At HERE (145 Sixth Ave. btw. Spring & Broome Sts.) through Aug. 9: Tues., Thurs., Fri., Sat at 8:30 p.m. (also Wed. Aug. 5 & Sun. Aug. 9). Matinees Sun. Aug. 2 & Sat. Aug. 8 at 4 p.m. For tickets ($18), visit here.org. For info on the play’s producing entities: newdogtheatre.com and piedmontperformancefactory.org.

 

HamletGhosts

Designed by Jiin Choi
Designed by Jiin Choi

After 18 months in the workshop percolation phase, The Brewing Dept. has distilled Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” down to its essence — a potent cup’s worth of core themes remain, with much of the plot and text jettisoned in favor of vignettes that mash the best of the Bard’s takes on family ties, insanity and revenge with Lady Gaga, Internet info and candid narratives plucked from the lives of cast members. Director Cody Holliday Haefner’s interpretation of the much-produced play forces the audience, he asserts, “to question their own complicity in the acts of madness and violence played out in front of them.”

Mon., Aug. 3–Wed., Aug. 5, 7 p.m. at HERE (145 Sixth Ave. btw. Spring & Broome Sts.) For tickets ($15), visit here.org. Artist info at thebrewingdept.org.

THE SINGULARITY

Photo by Bren Coombs

Dystopian near-future? Check. Bossy health care cyber-overlord? Check. Successful use of a fortysomething’s last egg? Nope. So begins “The Singularity” — in which Astrid rages against the system while going rogue to find a donor who’s got the right stuff to beat her biological clock. A chance discussion with a quirky scientist about his odd experiments could take her plans from concept to conception…but at what price? Playwright Crystal Jackson’s sassy, surreal, sci-fi comedy of escalating absurdities marks a return by Virago Theatre Company of San Francisco — last seen in these parts last summer, at The Flea, with their productions of “AROUSAL” and “The Lover.”

July 30Aug. 15: Mon.Sat. (dark on Tues.) at 9 p.m. with Sat. matinees Aug 1, 8, 15 at 1 p.m. At The Flea Theater (41 White St. btw. Broadway & Church). For tickets ($15$30), call 212-352-3101 or visit theflea.org. Artist info at viragotheatre.org.

—BY SCOTT STIFFLER