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Equal parts sad clown, demented cabaret, and crisis of meaning, Sad Boys in Harpy Land confronts anguish through humor, artmaking, and despair.

In this unhinged solo performance, self-proclaimed “experimental clown artist” Alex Tatarsky ushers audiences through an absurdist hellscape of the mind. Sad Boys in Harpy Land confronts anguish through humor in a spiraling narrative of artmaking and despair.

Through a series of existential vignettes, Tatarsky fuses autobiographical bones of their own story onto those of equally tormented protagonists from sources including Goethe, Dante, Amiri Baraka, Helen Adams, and Seinfeld. A coming-apart coming-of-age story, Tatarsky presents a highly calibrated mess in a tour-de-farce performance that challenges the idea of individual malady, and instead embraces the turbulent maze of shared struggle.

Photo Credit: Maria Baranova

About the Artist

Alex Tatarsky(they/them)

Alex Tatarsky

they/them

Called a “hilarious, finely tuned absurdist” (Theatre Jones) and “outrageous and profane” (NYTimes), Alex Tatarsky (they/them) makes performances in the uncomfortable in-between zone of comedy, dance-theater, performance art, and deluded rant--sometimes with songs. Tatarsky experienced fleeting fame as Andy Kaufman’s daughter and used to perform as a mound of dirt. Playing with perceptions of language and narrative structure, their live performances are highly responsive to venue and audience, often breaking the fourth wall and embracing humor to reveal vulnerability and shared humanity. Venues include La Mama, MoMA PS1, Playwrights Horizons, The Kitchen, Judson Church, Whitney Museum and many bars and basements. As curatorial fellow at the Poetry Project, they organized a series on the poetics of rot. Research interests include bootlegs, hellscapes, and compost.

@tartar.biz

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CREDITS

Alex Tatarsky | Writer & Performer
Shane Riley | Live Music & Sound Design
Iris McCloughan | Director
Andreea Mincic | Costumes, Props, Scenic Design
Masha Tsimring | Lighting Design
Payton Smith | Stage Manager
Basie Allen, Lisa Fagan | Dramaturgy
Eva Steinmentz | Developed with
Tommy Kriegsmann | Manager

Sad Boys in Harpy Land was commissioned by Abrons Arts Center through the Jerome Foundation AIRspace Residency Program.

Playwrights Horizons, Inc, in New York City produced the NYC Off Broadway Premiere of Sad Boys in Harpy Land in 2023.

Sad Boys in Harpy Land received development support through residencies at FringeArts, the Jilline Ringle Solo Performance Program at 1812 Productions, Movement Research, MAAS, and Poetry Electric at La Mama ETC.

Honorary producer for the On the Boards presentation: John C. Robinson and Maya Sonenberg.

The presentation at On the Boards is supported in part by Creative West which receives support in part from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.