tour
A Hunger Artist is currently touring in production with Octopus Theatricals.
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If you are a presenter interested in booking A Hunger Artist, please get in touch.
Based on the story by Franz Kafka
Created by:
Performer
Jonathan Levin
Playwright
Josh Luxenberg
Director
Joshua William Gelb
“Are you still starving? When are you going to stop...?””
A man sits alone in a cage, starving himself for your entertainment.
This darkly comic, visually-striking adaptation of the Franz Kafka short story uses physical theater, Victorian miniatures, puppetry, and a set of simple props to support a powerhouse solo performance.
Once cheered by thousands, the Hunger Artist is now forgotten by everyone except his one-time manager. What begins as a simple nostalgic story transforms into a startlingly inventive trip into the nature of memory, art, performance, and spectatorship, as told by the only person who remembers an artist whose act was simply... to hunger.
A sly social commentary wrapped in an entertaining package, A Hunger Artist takes Kafka’s original story (published in 1922 as fascism was on the rise in Europe) and transforms it into a trenchant meditation on our present moment. At a time of deep social upheaval, what is the purpose of art and entertainment? What does the art we consume say about us—and about our own hungers?
Winner of Summerhall's Lustrum Award for Excellence at the Edinburgh Fringe, and nominated for two Drama Desk Awards (Outstanding Solo Performance, Outstanding Puppet Design).
Photos by Kelly Stuart, and Adam Kissick/APAP
New YOrk Press
Critics Pick!
"Surprisingly lovable... full of jokes and sudden sympathy... The artist starves but we leave sated."
It’s almost as if Kafka himself willed it into being."
Edinburgh Press
"A bravura display of theatrical skill... the best, most complete work I've seen this year. If I had a sixth star, it would get one."
"A magnificent performance that manages to enthrall and transport!"
"Ingeniously constructed... I simply have to say go and see it, you will not be disappointed."
"One of the most imaginative shows… at this year’s Fringe!"
The Team
Set and Costume Design: Peiyi Wong
Lighting Design: Kate McGee
Sound Design: M. Florian Staab
Puppet Design: Charlie Kanev and Sarah Nolen
Props and Toy Theater: Jonathan Levin
Additional Props and Puppets: Ariel Lauryn
Original NYC Production Stage Manager: Elizabeth Ramsay
Original NYC Producer: Audrey Frischman
Original NYC Production Manager: Will Jennings
Trailer: Jesse Garrison
Booking Inquiries
A Hunger Artist is available for touring.
Please contact:
Taneisha Duggan
Octopus Theatricals
Past Performances
September 2021*
at the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes (World Puppetry Festival)
Charleville-Mézières, France
January - February 2020
at the Connelly Theater
New York City
May 2019*
at Vårscenefest
Hålogaland Teater
Tromsø, Norway
September 2018
at Sandglass Theater’s
Puppets in the Green Mountains Festival
Next Stage Arts Project
Putney, VT
February 2018
at the Hartbeat Ensemble
Hartford, CT
January 2018
at the Connelly Theater
New York City
December 2017
at the Baltimore Theatre Project
Baltimore, MD
August 2017
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
ZOO Venues
*WINNER - Summerhall's Lustrum Award for Excellence
June 2017 (World Premiere)
at the Connelly Theater
New York City
Co-Produced by The Tank
*Drama Desk Awards nominations for Outstanding Solo Performance and Outstanding Puppet Design
November 2016
at the UnitedSolo Festival
New York City
Work-in-progress presentation
*WINNER - Award for "Best Satire"
September 2016
at the New Ohio Theater
New York City
Work-in-progress presentation
*These engagements were supported by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation through USArtists International in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
A Hunger Artist was first developed at The Freight Residency (2015) and it has since been performed in developmental workshops at Cloud City and Jalopy.
The premiere production of A Hunger Artist was made possible by funding from:
The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature
The Jim Henson Foundation
The Nancy Quinn Fund, a program of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York)
Subsidized studio space provided by the A.R.T./New York Creative Space Grant, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation
The LIT Fund
All photos on this page by Kelly Stuart. Trailer shot and edited by Jesse Garrison.
