Each January The Public Theater gives New York audiences a look at some of the coolest, edgiest, and most unique theatre from around the world as part of their acclaimed Under the Radar Festival. This year, the 11-day festival (curated by Mark Russell) celebrates 15 years downtown with exciting international offerings from Argentina, Australia, France, Lebanon, Nigeria, Norway, Palestine, and the UK.
Under the Radar runs January 3-13 and a full list of shows can be found here. Scroll on for first-look trailers for 21 of the festival’s limited productions.
Hear World! Naija Woman Talk True (Jan 3, 5-7 at The Public)
The show grapples with the issues affecting the lives of women across Nigeria, and the factors that limit their potential for independence, leadership, and meaningful contribution in society.
Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore! (Jan 3, 6, 10, 12-13 at Joe’s Pub at The Public)
Penny Arcade is New York’s undisputed queen of the underground, and her world-famous sex and censorship show is among the most exuberant performances to ever emerge from New York’s East Village.
Frankenstein (Jan 3, 5-7, 10-12 at The Public)
Internationally-renowned multimedia company Manual Cinema stitches together the classic Frankenstein story with Mary Shelley’s own biography to create an unexpected story about the beauty and horror of creation.
I Am a Seagull (Jan 5 at Joe’s Pub at The Public)
I Am a Seagull follows a community of actors in their frenzied and loving attempt to stage a Chekhov play in their house, yard and neighborhood.
Minefield (Jan 11-13 at NYU Skirball)
Argentine and British veterans from the Falklands/Malvinas war are transported into the past to reconstruct their experience of the war, its aftermath, and their memories.
Cabin (Jan 6 & 12 at The Public)
Tells the story of three queer men in a poly-amorous relationship who move from Brooklyn to a cabin in upstate New York, and of the violence that befalls them.
Chambre Noire (Jan 10-13 at The Public)
The show is a wild hallucination around the death-bed of Valerie Jean Solanas, the radical feminist and creator of the SCUM Manifesto who attempted to murder Andy Warhol.
Lorelei Ramirez Alive! (Jan 6 & 13 at The Public)
Crafting at the intersection of art and comedy, Lorelei perverts the familiar and profanes the sacred—all in pursuit of one last laugh.
Minor Character (Jan 4-6, 9, 11-13 at The Public)
New Saloon’s irreverent mashup of English-language translations of Uncle Vanya— from the dusty 1916 edition to Google Translate’s profoundly whack results—is a kaleidoscopic amplification of Chekhov's depressing comedy.
[50/50] old school animation (Jan 4-7, 11,13 at The Public)
A classical ghost story for our contemporary moment, this deceptively simple confessional transforms into an unnerving reflection on womanhood, memes, and our capacity for cruelty.
Hyperbolic! (Jan 4, 12-13 at Joe’s Pub at The Public)
The Illustrious Blacks fuse music, dance, theater, and fashion as the main ingredients to expand minds, shake bootys, and encourage all to be bold, be brave, and be you! #LiveTheHypeLife
The Cold Record (Jan 4-7, 9-13 at Joe’s Pub at The Public)
The story of a 12-year-old boy who tries to set the record for leaving school the most days with a fever and in the process falls in love with the school nurse and breaks his heart on the punk rock.
Ink (Jan 5-6 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Ink is an art lecture, live personal essay, and electronic music concert all in one.
As Far as My Fingertips Take Me (Jan 4-7, 9-13 at The Public)
Through touch and sound, this intimate encounter explores empathy and whether we need to literally “feel” a refugee in order to understand the effect of border discrimination on peoples’ lives.
Evolution of a Sonero (Jan 9, 12-13 at The Public)
The first full-length show by acclaimed poet, singer, and actor Flaco Navaja.
Meow Meow (Jan 2 & 5 at Joe’s Pub at The Public)
International siren and comedienne extraordinaire Meow Meow brings her glorious brand of subversive and sublime performance to Joe’s Pub.
Twin Size Beds (Jan 6 & 11 at The Public)
A concert-play that fuses deadpan stand-up with a hormone-fueled musical blitz.
The Nosebleed (Jan 5 & 9 at The Public)
An intimate autobiography that explores playwright/director Aya Ogawa’s fractured relationship with her long-deceased and enigmatic father.
Macbeth in Stride (Jan 5 & 7 at The Public)
A live concert and theatrical event that excavates the underbelly of female ambition as it traces the fatalistic arc of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth.
The Space Between Letters (Jan 5 & 10 at The Public)
Easels swirl in an intersectional flipchart ballet that unpacks the legal, social, and political dimensions of adult literacy in the United States.
Astrov’s Lounge: Music from the Chekov Project (Jan 5 at Joe’s Pub at The Public)
A group of sixty, all professional theater-makers and musicians, gather in the house, yard and neighborhood to explore and explode a Chekhov play.
