Shana Lutker’s commission for Performa 13 is a new play based on a fistfight that took place in Paris involving key members of the Surrealist group. Revisiting a moment in which the theater was a site where revolutionary ideas could erupt into violence, The Nose, The Cane, The Broken Left Arm is set on July 6, 1923, the night of The Evening of the Bearded Heart, a Dada variety show organized by Tristan Tzara at the Théâtre Michel in Paris. Early in the program, an insult to Pablo Picasso incited André Breton to rise from the audience in protest. He climbed on stage with a cane raised and chaos ensued. By the time the theater lights were dimmed and the police left, the stage was wrecked and bones were broken. Lutker presents a new perspective on this story, in which eyes and noses run free from their owners to take center stage and characters from an array of Surrealist works break away from their texts, with costumes inspired by those designed by Sonia Delaunay for the original production.

The Nose, The Cane, The Broken Left Arm is a Performa Commission. Curated by Summer Guthery.