Asher Hartman’s LA experimental theater company
Mr. Akita is a one man play in which a Borscht Belt comedian and and op-art painting, go “head to surface” in a reminiscence of love, sex, art, failure, masculinity, class antipathies, and the sublime.
Written and Directed by Asher Hartman
Performed by Cliff Hengst
Painting, Sun burn (Split), 2012 by Emily Joyce
Photography and video by Ian Byers-Gamber
Mr. Akita was first performed at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, September 26-27, 2015, as part of the exhibition Machine Project: The Platinum Collection (live by special request). In 2017, Mr. Akita was presented at HAUSER WIRTH & SCHIMMEL in Los Angeles for 3 shows from March 3-5, 2017 and for 2 shows in the Bay Area at the Berkeley Museum of Art & Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) April 13 and 15, 2017.
ENTER A MAN IN A SUIT. THE MAN WILL BE A BORSCHT BELT COMEDIAN, DE KOONING, A WATERY GHOST, A PAINTING, CHRIST/JACK NICHOLSON. ALL LINES ARE HIS. STAGE DIRECTIONS ARE OFTEN SPOKEN. THOSE THAT ARE NOT SPOKEN ARE IN PARENTHESES.
““Dear Painting,” said my teacher, his eyes rimmed red, his breath a crystallized ointment for an unspeakable disease. He let his hand track the surface. “Dear Painting, I am better than my father, aren’t I? Please say yes.””
