Striptease meets Socrates in this burlesque blowout.
The “Surrealist Burlesque” extravaganza is coming to the Coney Island Museum on Aug. 23, in a follow-up to last year’s sexy rendition of George Orwell’s dystopian classic, “Animal Farm” — taking its theme this time from philosopher Guy Debord’s 1967 critque on consumerism and mass media, “The Society of Spectacle.”
“It’s about how all we do now is key into this spectacle, a very Marxist approach about how we’re being disenfranchised form our own humanity, and I thought it would be interesting to look at that face on,” said producer Dr. Lucky.
To illustrate Debord’s analysis of modern consumer culture — with dancing girls — Dr Lucky and her crew have arranged a series of short performances featuring bizarre interactions between woman and machine.
“The downstairs show is all going to be really amazing surrealist burlesque numbers, operating around technology, robots, and voyeurism — being caged and removed from humanity,” the good doctor explained.
In one instance, performer Leroi the Girlboi does a number set in the Chinese World Fair, where she portrays a Japanese ballroom dancing robot — which just so happens to actually exist — providing lonely, gentleman dancers with a partner to twirl, albeit an artificial one.
“It’s very sad,” said Dr. Lucky.
Burlesque might not seem like the go-to medium for conveying philosophical theorem, but Dr. Lucky is adamant that nipple tassels and existential crises go hand in hand.
“To me it made absolute sense,” said Lucky. “Burlesque is very over the top and I thought it would fit in very well with the text.”
The downstairs series isn’t the only spectacle to behold — the entire Coney Island Museum venue will be utilized, with performances so secret, you’d think Dr. Lucky was speaking under doctor-patient confidentiality.
“It’s going to be an experiential tour that’s beyond this world; very surreal, very what the f— is going on here, where the audience doesn’t know what to expect,” Dr. Lucky said.
Surrealist Burlesque at Coney Island Museum [1208 Surf Ave. between Stillwell Avenue and W. 12th Street in Coney Island, (718) 372–5159, coneyisland.com] Aug. 23, 9 pm. $12.
Reach reporter Colin MIxson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.
