Samantha Shay: Life in this House is Over

  • August 15 - 16, 2025
  • PS21 : Center for Contemporary Performance

    2980 New York 66
    Chatham, New York 12037
Ticket Price $17.50-$35.00 Buy Tickets
Description

Making its US premiere at PS21, Life in this House is Over is an original dance-theatre piece about the social awkwardness of grief. Directed by interdisciplinary artist Samantha Shay, the piece was developed at Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, where Shay was a guest artist & researcher. 

 

Inspired by the writing of Anton Chekhov, the work is structured as a funeral and wake, entering into a tragicomic world beyond known logic. Shay asks questions Chekhov posed years before: how do we move forward when an uncertain future presses on a dying past, where emblems of nostalgia are intertwined with the complexities of human suffering? Is connection possible in a world drawn taut by the force of imminent change? 

 

By gathering artists from two significant artistic lineages of performance—current and former artists of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch (including luminary Julie Shanahan, who returns to PS21) as well as the Grotowski Institute-based physical theatre company, Teatr ZAR—the performance is a kaleidoscope of artistic influences, erupting from one medium to the other, refusing to impose a single viewpoint, leaving the door open for the audience to comprehend a myriad of themes.

 

Photo credit: Saga Sig

 

Date & Time

Aug 15 - 16, 2025

Venue Details

PS21 : Center for Contemporary Performance

2980 New York 66
Chatham, New York 12037 PS21 : Center for Contemporary Performance
PS/21 Inc

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About PS21

A vibrant center for contemporary performance in the Hudson Valley, PS21 “presents work that challenges and invites” (The New York Times): adventurous productions by leading and emerging American and international artists in music, dance, and theater, and visionaries creating entirely new genres. On our open-air Pavilion Theater stage, across our expansive, unspoiled grounds, and in the diverse surrounding communities, PS21 cultivates and presents productions that transcend aesthetic boundaries and revitalize existing artistic languages and grammars. Throughout the year, we host developmental residencies for dancers, musicians, actors, and creators of original, even unclassifiable new work. Rooted in community collaboration, PS21’s programming engages creatively with critical global and social issues. It is a mecca for innovative and original artistic voices, a destination for performance that can be experienced nowhere else in the region. PS21’s Pavilion Theater is a green-energy marvel surrounded by 100 acres of unspoiled meadows, trails, and woodlands that are a haven to wildlife and visitors across the region.  Integrated into our unspoiled campus, the theater embodies our commitments to the public: open, inviting, and optimized for their enjoyment and encouraging citizen expression and participation.

 

Photography
PS21 will take photos of this event for use in social media and on our website. The photos sometimes include audiences. Your attendance at this performance indicates you consent to appear in PS21 photography. If you would prefer not to appear in any photos, please let a staff member know, and we will be glad to accommodate your request.


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