St. Ann’s Warehouse wanted to stage a play with buzz, but at the Oct. 7 premiere of Dutch playwright Adelheid Roosen’s “Is.Man,” the buzz wasn’t about how great the show was.
In the middle of his performance, Youssef Idilbi gestured towards his malfunctioning microphone and then abruptly walked off stage.
When he returned — out of costume and carrying a bag from Foot Locker — he gathered his possessions from the stage and made his final exit.
Roosen’s show — and its companion piece, “The Veiled Monologues” — are making its U.S. debut. After Idilbi flaked out, Roosen took to the stage herself, reading her own words from a script.
St. Ann’s artistic director Susan Feldman told the New York Times that Idilbi’s strange behavior was due to illness. He was slated to return for the final performances of the show this weekend.
Roosen’s plays made headlines — in The Brooklyn Paper — when the playwright said President Bush and Osama bin Laden were “mirrors” of each other.
