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PARADISE NOW: THE LIVING THEATRE
IN AMERIKA DVD
LIMITED EDITION OF 1,000 - ORDER NOW!
“Life, revolution and theater are three words for the same thing:
an unconditional NO to the present society.” - Julian Beck
PARADISE NOW: The Living Theatre in Amerika
DVD featuring rare, never-before-distributed films and a bacchanal of
revolutionary multimedia documents from The Living Theatre’s historic and
influential ‘68-’69 American tour. A fulminating art-meets-life installation
brought to you in collaboration with
Living Theatre and Arthur
PREVIEW ON YOUTUBE
- PARADISE NOW: THE LIVING THEATRE IN AMERIKA (1969 - a film by Marty Topp, produced by Ira Cohen for Universal Mutant
“Marty Topp’s beautiful film of ‘Paradise Now’ reveals how the theories of
revolutionary change and the experience of sexual liberation are not separate paths to the beautiful nonviolent anarchist revolution. Practiced together
they are a single thrust, encompassing both political action and sensual joy,
leading to the dreamed-of terrestrial paradise." — Judith Malina
featuring precious footage of Living Theatre productions
Mysteries and smaller pieces,
Paradise Now, and
Frankenstein
“The fusion of Brown’s freewheeling direct cinema and the Living Theatre’s performance for revolutionary change (amidst the heydays of both) unite as a dynamic concoction of the era, yielding for the viewer a shifting terrain of both critical insight and ecstatic zeal, not as a vacant nostalgia for a pre-commodified radicality, but as tactical inspiration for future days.” - Andrew Wilson of Artist’s Access Television
THE PERMANENT REVOLUTION: CHANGE! (2007) a film by Will Swofford and Georg GatsasOn Thursday August 23rd, 2007, in the south plaza of New York’s Union Square The Living Theatre presented Paradise Now in the streets marking the 80th anniversary of the capital executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti - Italian immigrants unjustly executed for their anarchist political convictions.
Witness the restaging of their landmark play Paradise Now in New York’s Union Square on the site of a historic mass protest by over 500,000 supporters of Sacco and Vanzetti on the fateful day in 1927 when they were electrocuted by the State of Massachussets.
COMMEMORATIVE PRINTED MATTER- TWO DOUBLE SIDED 14 x 19 POSTERS
THE MAP OF PARADISE as drawn by Julian Beck
AN INFRARED ODYSESSYmontage of photographs by Don Snyder
- 36 PAGE FULL COLOR MAGAZINE BOOKLET
including texts by Antonin Artaud, Allan Graubard, Julian Beck, Judith Malina, Ira Cohen, Don Snyder, photographs, stills from the films, ephemera and much more
- INTERVIEWS with directors Julian Beck*, Judith Malina, Hanon Reznikov, company member Steve Ben
Israel, and producer Ira Cohen
*(courtesy of Mark Ari)
- THE SPINNING WHEEL by Steve Ben Israel,
soundtrack to EMERGENCY sourced from
agit-prop radio broadcasts
- LOVE & POLITICS, an introduction to the themes and personalities at the heart of the work of The Living Theatre, including scenes from The Living Theatre repertory and poems and texts by Malina, Reznikov, Julian Beck. Filmed at The Pink Pony NYC and LaMama ETC with an introduction by Ira Cohen
- FULL THEATRICAL SCRIPT SLIDESHOW of Paradise Now, A Collective Creation of The Living
Theatre, as written down by Julian Beck and Judith Malina documenting more than 100 performances of the event
- MYSTIC FIRE GALLERY of excerpts from Living Theatre documentaries including Sheldon Rochlin’s watershed documentary, Signal Through the Flames
- AKASHIC VIDEO GALLERY of excerpts from current and forthcoming Arthur DVD releases
Order direct from ARTHUR using PAYPAL
WHAT IS PARADISENOW?
In 1968 The Living Theatre, led by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, triumphantly
returned to America from years of self-imposed exile in Europe with their
theatrical breakthrough Paradise Now. The
play introduces the practice of collective creation, dissolving the boundaries
of human interactions and forging a harmony between the actors and audience. Of
this process, Julian Beck writes, “Collective creation is the secret weapon of
the people… This play is a voyage from the many to the one and from the one to
the many. It’s a spiritual voyage and a political voyage, a voyage for the
actors and the spectators. The play is a vertical ascent toward permanent
revolution, leading to revolutionary action here and now. The revolution
of which the play speaks is the beautiful, non-violent, anarchist revolution.
The purpose of the play is to lead to a state of being in which non-violent
revolutionary action is possible.”
The result of this shared voyage is the spontaneous creation of a temporary
anarchist collective- free from the enslavements of war, violence, the State,
money and the self.
CRITICAL PRAISE FOR MARTY TOPP’S PARADISENOW
“Paradise Now is possibly The Living Theatre’s greatest achievement …
unsurpassable!” — Ira Cohen
“Joyous, brutal, exploding with the kinetic energies of psychic catharsis...” - PARADISE ON FILM - Don
Snyder, July 1970, East Village Other
“Like an astonishing portion of the country’s popular music, the spectacles of
The Living Theater proved to be in content and form outside the social system-
not structured by it nor, except as outlet, implementing it: liberated
territory.” — Revolution at the Brooklyn Academy - Stefan Brecht, The Drama
Review number 43: Spring 1969, The Living Theater Issue
Founded in 1947, The Living Theatre has staged more than 80 productions
performed in eight languages in 25 countries on four continents - a unique body
of work. Visit their new space on Clinton St. in NYC - more
Inquiries: editor at universalmutant dot com