A HUNGER ARTIST
Created collaboratively by performer Jonathan Levin, writer Josh Luxenberg, and director Joshua William Gelb of Sinking Ship Productions
"Are you still starving? When are you going to stop...?"
A man sits alone in a cage, starving himself for your entertainment. Once cheered by thousands, the Hunger Artist is now forgotten by everyone except his one-time manager.
This unique, visually-striking production uses physical theater, Victorian miniatures, puppetry, and a set of simple props to support a powerhouse solo performance.
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? A Sinking Ship Production.
Sinking Ship Productions
Sinking Ship Productions creates work that is the theatrical version of circumnavigating the globe in a questionably seaworthy vessel: grand and ridiculous, unadvisedly ambitious, and possibly delusional as we sail full tilt to the horizon. Sinking Ship, a Brooklyn-based theater company, is the creative collaboration between Jonathan Levin and Josh Luxenberg. Working with a core group of Associate Artists, combining physical theater, puppetry, music and movement in delightful, strange and unexpected ways, Sinking Ship’s productions have grappled with concepts such as the creation and destruction of the universe as imagined by science fiction writers, how a man's search for connection could ultimately lead to complete isolation, and the limits of human understanding through the search for extra dimensions of space in theoretical physics.
Creative Team
Created collaboratively by
Jonathan Levin, Performer
Josh Luxemberg, Writer
Joshua William Galb, Director
Peiyi Wong, Set and Costume Designer
Kate McGee, Lighting Design
M. Florian Staab, Sound Design
Charlie Kane and Sarah Nolen, Puppet Design
Jonathan Levin, Props and Toy Theater
M. Florian Staab, Lighting Supervisor
Elizabeth M. Stewart, Lighting Associate
Ariel Lauryn, Additional Props and Puppets
Performance History
Winner of Summerhall's Lustrum Award for Excellence at the Edinburgh Fringe, and nominated for two Drama Desk Awards (Outstanding Solo Performance, and Outstanding Puppet Design).
Surprisingly lovable...
Surprisingly lovable...
What People Are Saying
“Directed by Joshua William Gelb from an elegant script by Josh Luxenberg, this visually arresting ‘Hunger Artist’ leads with enchantment... [Levin] holds the audience in the palm of his hand.”
— Laura Collins-Hughes, The New York Times
★★★★ Critics Pick! "Surprisingly lovable... full of jokes and sudden sympathy... The artist starves, but we leave sated."
—Helen Shaw, Time Out New York
“Spellbinding… On the stage, A Hunger Artist has an impact equal to its power on the page. It’s almost as if Kafka himself willed it into being.”
