The Four Lives
Marcus David
April 2024
photo by Richard Termine
The Four Lives
Skysaver Productions
Created & Directed by Theodora Skipitares
Music by Sxip Shirey
If you enjoy catchy, trippy tunes with a healthy dose of metaphysical angst, then The Four Lives at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La Mama is for you. This new production, which combines puppetry, animation and live music, will take you on a wonderful excursion that zooms in and out of life and existence. It’s a real journey for the audience too, because each of the four acts is performed on a different stage, so be ready to move around on this fantastic voyage.
The Director’s Note reads, “The Greek philosopher Pythagoras believed that each of us experiences four lives: as a mineral, a vegetable, an animal and a human. In this immersive spectacle with live music and several puppets, giant and tiny, the audience moves through different environments, encountering worlds where humans are not the main attraction.”
The play begins in the quiet intimacy of the insect realm, and from there it takes us on a mythological and scientific tour of grandiose spectacles set to musical numbers that stand out in their ability to create atmosphere, groove and soul. This ride is a funky one. The Four Lives is both cosmic and microscopic, with plenty of opportunities to showcase swinging and effective puppetry and animation. The time and space traversed is so vast that it leaves one to contemplate whether humanity is anything more than a tiny blip on this thing called life on planet earth.
The Four Lives
April 4 – April 21, 2024
Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street, 2nd floor
New York
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