The Operating Theater’s production of Transatlantica was a re-envisioning of award-winning playwright Kenneth Finkle’s lunatic fable about the denial of death.
Transatlantica tells the story of Dr. Reginald Reinhold, whose session with an eccentric patient is interrupted by news that his wife is dying. By coincidence, the patient, too, is dying, as is every subsequent visitor to his home.
The setting is Dr. Reinhold’s lavish mansion on the shores of the fantastic continent of Transatlantica. In his parlor, festooned with mythical taxidermy, boldly flocked wallpaper and overflowing shelves, he is greeted by a parade of unusual guests including Udi Bohe, famed theater director, the enigmatic Inspector Stranjé, and the inimitable Jacques Jacques.
In a through-the-looking-glass land with elements of future-Victorian England, the production was a lavish spectacle of a topsy-turvey world where gardens are planted with cake and lovers grow into trees.
Dadaist and surreal, Transatlantica consciously walks the line between sharp wit and purposeful idiocy, a parlour room comedy is rich with earnest undertones.making us laugh at nonsense yet reflect upon it philosophically.
Transatlantica from Jason Schuler on Vimeo. Contact Jason@doctoredpictures.com for the password.
Video from the opening moments of Transatlantica, videography by Lauren Fritz.