The Hinterlands creates performances and public events equal parts playful and surreal. From our original touring pieces to the events we curate in our Detroit neighborhood, our genre-defying work is built around pressing into the unknown areas of our personal and collective history with fearless physicality and a sense of humor. Founded in 2009 by Richard Newman and Liza Bielby, our work has been seen at venues including Kohler Arts Center (Sheboygan), Flynn Center (Burlington), p! (NYC), Charlestown Working Theater (Boston), Co-Prosperity Sphere (Chicago), and internationally at the 2012 Shanghai Biennale, White Night (Chengdu), Teatri Dodona (Pristina), and the Berlinale among others. We have conducted numerous international collaborations, both in-person and digital, including Invisible Cities (Detroit/Chengdu/Shanghai), Breaking Bread (Kosovo) and The Enemy of My Enemy (Detroit/Beijing/Tehran/Moscow). We are members of the Consortium for Training and Place-Based Ensembles, the Arts, Culture, & Commons Working Group, and the Network of Ensemble Theatres. thehinterlands.org
Description
A mythic telling of loss, transformation, and enchantment for the digital age
Down into the Digital Otherworld journeys virtuosic Orpheus in search of his lost Eurydice, enchanted away by the mischievous Faery King…like a body and its soul rent in two - one party frozen outside of time in a world of illusion, the other desperate to return things to how they once were. But how to become whole again?
Inspired by medieval retellings of the Orpheus myth and our collective internet-driven madness, Sunset weaves technologies old and new - mask performance, live video mixing, AI chatbots, electronic music, lamentations, spirit talking, automata, Victorian illusion and more - into a music-driven terrifyingly embodied work that mythologizes our relationship with technology, and how it has changed and shaped our imagination. Join The Hinterlands and video artist Renee Willoughby in the Otherworld of ones and zeroes as we wrestle our souls back from the trickster in the black box and break the spell that traps us in the algorithm. This performance installation runs approximately 30 minutes.
NOTE: If tickets are sold out for your desired time, please join our waitlist!
With support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Date & Time
May 22 - 23, 2025
Venue Details
Play House
12657 Moran StreetDetroit, Michigan 48212
