A joyfully queer fantasia that draws on jazz music and operatic form to reimagine the last hours of Socrates as an ecstatic celebration.
The latest work from playwright Taylor Mac and composer Matt Ray takes us to ancient Athens on the eve of the death of famous philosopher Socrates. Sentenced to die for corrupting the youth (by having sex with them), Socrates decides to spend his remaining hours doing what he loves: engaging in philosophical debate about the true meaning of virtue. And singing songs. And dancing. And just, you know, hanging out. What follows is a musical-theatrical riff on philosophical history, complete with a Plato who assiduously but inaccurately writes it all down, implying that what's most essential in life, as in theater, are the unwritable moments of joyous communion. In other words, "the hang."
About the Author :
Taylor Mac (who uses "judy"--lowercase [sic]--as a gender pronoun) is the author of Joy and Pandemic; The Hang (composed by Matt Ray); Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus; A 24-Decade History of Popular Music; Prosperous Fools; The Fre; Hir; The Walk Across America for Mother Earth; The Lily's Revenge; The Young Ladies Of; Red Tide Blooming; The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac; and the revue Comparison Is Violence; Holiday Sauce; and The Last Two People on Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville (created with Mandy Patinkin, Susan Stroman, and Paul Ford). Mac is the first American to receive the International Ibsen Award; is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, a Tony nominee for Best Play; and is the recipient of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History (with Matt Ray), the Doris Duke Artist Award, a Guggenheim, the Herb Alpert Award, a Drama League Award, the Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, the Edwin Booth Award, two Helpmann Awards, a New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, two Obies, two Bessies, and an Ethyl Eichelberger.
Matt Ray is a New York-based pianist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and music director. His arrangements have been called "wizardly" (Time Out New York) and "ingenious" (New York Times), and his piano playing "classic" (New York Times). For his work on Taylor Mac's show A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, he won the 2017 Kennedy Prize for Drama Inspired by American History. Notable live performances include playing at Carnegie Hall with Kat Edmonson, the Hollywood Bowl with reggae legend Burning Spear, Lincoln Center with Joey Arias, and shows in Paris and the UK with Justin Vivian Bond. He co-wrote songs for and performed in Bridget Everett's one-hour Comedy Central special, Gynecological Wonder, as well as Everett's hit show Rock Bottom. He also music directed Taylor Mac's Obie award-winning play The Lily's Revenge. Ray has released three albums as a leader: We Got It! (2001), Lost In New York (2006); and Songs For the Anonymous(2013).
Review :
"The Hang feels like a celebration of theater itself--a paean to collaboration and company, to rampant beauty and to the necessary balm of gathering together...a ritual of splendor and an exaltation of queerness."
--The New York Times
"The most daring aspect of The Hang is also its most heartening: About a man's death from hemlock poisoning, it is unfailingly joyous and never takes itself too seriously. It is a radical declaration of queer frivolity in our severe age, and it restores my faith that there is still room for dangerous ideas and weird people in the New York theater."
--TheaterMania
"At a time when self-restraint and simple good taste can seem in desperately short supply, Mac continues to be that rare artist who proves that sometimes too much is exactly enough."
--New York Stage Review
"Beautiful, enveloping, and wild...a house party crossed with a New Orleans funeral procession married to a Radical Faerie bacchanal."
--Vulture
"Blissfully bizarre...Mac's lyrics and Ray's music prove more seductive than ever."
--The Wrap
"The Hang is classic Mac--an utterly uncategorizable mélange of Aristophanic comedy, American musical, drag show, cabaret, jazz concert, song recital and philosophical symposium that you can't help loving."
--Theatre Times
"A little philosophy and a lot of hanging out with a fabulous group of guests who sing, dance, drink, gossip, reminisce, engage is some intimate behaviors, and generally just have a grand old time at a good old fashioned pre-death wake...the overall experience is one of unbridled and most infectious joy."
--Talkin' Broadway
"[The Hang] reminds us why we gather together with strangers in these dark rooms...We've come together for fellowship and communion, to bask in a creative space that transforms into a mythopoetic orgy of mourning and celebration and catharsis. As the chorus repeats: we're 'in it for the hang.'"
--Theatrely
"The Hang might be the story of the death of Socrates, but what a way to go."
--BroadwayWorld
