Game on at the Brick

By Meredith Deliso

This year’s Game Play Festival, which features theatrical works that draw inspiration from the world of video gaming, offers as many different types of shows as there are consoles.

“We have the most diverse selection of acts this year,” said Chris Chappell, producer of the Brick Theater’s three-year-old festival. “The concept’s pretty simple — combining performance and gaming — but there are so many different ways that it can manifest itself.”

Chappell’s own theater company, Sneaky Snake Productions, is adding to the mix with “Brainexplode!,” a live-action, interactive adventure game where audience members navigate a character, whose brain has been wired to explode in one hour, through various obstacles and help prevent his timed doom.

In more live-action game play, “Modal Kombat” features a game of Tetris, where the controllers are guitars, and the audience yells out each move to the players. It was a hit at last year’s festival.

“You wouldn’t really see it anywhere else,” said Chappell.

For a more straightforward theatrical experience, playwright John DeVore presents “Son of Pong” (pictured), featuring stories about growing up with a video game junkie father.

As usual at The Brick, opening tonight, consists of a free cabaret — a preview of all the shows, so you can decide which ones are worth putting a quarter in the slot for.

And it wouldn’t be a proper video game festival without a chiptune dance party (July 16), where you can move to vintage video-game inspired chiptune music, with playable video games from the 1980s and ‘90s on hand for some truly old-school fun, consoles included.

Game Play Festival at the Brick [575 Metropolitan Ave. between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907-6189], July 9-31. Tickets $15 (opening night cabaret on July 8 is free). For info, visit www.bricktheater.com.

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A festival of 'Comic' proportions

By Meredith Deliso

The Brick is channeling its inner geek once again.

After the past success of “Game Play,” a video game theater festival; and “Nerdlesque,” a dorky burlesque show, comes the ultimate fan-boy union — the Comic Book Theater Festival.

“Outside of theater, comics have always been my most passionate interest,” said Jeff Lewonczyk, an associate director at the Williamsburg venue. “The Brick’s been having fun curating festivals based around a particular genre or performance style, and this is an idea for a genre.”

The genre includes shows about superheroes and webcomics (“Five Things”), adaptations of comic books (“Action Philosophers”), a live action graphic novel (“Manifesto”), a comic book edition of “Nerdlesque,” a play based on the life of a cartoonist (“Reporter Girl”), and, in an obligatory response to  Broadway’s “Spider-Man,” an indie superhero rock musical, “Ms. Perfect.”

Lewonczyk presents his own spin on the comic book theater genre with “The Bubble of Solace,” about an obsessive comic book fan who gets too immersed in his favorite titles. But don’t let that cautionary tale dissuade from indulging in your own fandom when the festival kicks off tonight with a free cabaret preview of all the shows.

“There’s great spectacle, experimentation and narrative fun,” said Lewonczyk. “If you like comic books or theater, there’s something for everyone.”

Comic Book Theater Festival at the Brick [575 Metropolitan Ave. between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907-6189], June 2-July 1. Tickets $15. For info, visit www.bricktheater.com.

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Calling all comic book artists

The Brick Theater is putting out a call for applications for its Comic Book Theater Festival.

Superheroes, space opera, true romance, hijinks, history, literature, autobiography, lines, dots, shapes, pencil, sound, ink, movement wanted.

From the release:

The Brick Theater, Inc. is now accepting applications for the Comic Book Theater Festival. For more information and to apply to be part of the June 2011 festival visit www.bricktheater.com/comics. The deadline for all submissions is February 15, 2011.

The influence of comics on our culture continues to grow. From the pop fantasias of Hollywood blockbusters to the rawness and refinement of intimate memoirs – and everything in between – it’s impossible to deny the wide appeal of comics’ words and images. The theater, of course, is no less immune to its spell. This summer, The Brick will invite one of history’s newest art forms to meet one of its oldest – and, through collaborations between visual and dramatic artists, the form and content of comics will collide with the content and form of theater to create strange new hybrids across both mediums. Also, superheroes and stuff. 

Every show that applies to be part of the festival is encouraged to create some sort of alliance between comic artists and theater artists. Ideally, each show will have a “staged” component, presented in front of a live audience, and a “printed” component, to be absorbed separately, either on paper or online. In order to foster collaboration and give artists a forum to meet and share ideas, a Facebook page has been set up at facebook.com/comicbooktheaterfestival. 

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The nerds get nude at 'Nerdlesque' show on Saturday night

By Michelle Manetti

“Star Trek” never looked so good.

In “Nerdlesque,” a geeky burlesque show at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg on Dec. 11, notions of sexiness will get turned on their head.

Producer Chris Chappell, a self-identified nerd, got the idea for the four-eyed striptease after noticing a change in how nerds were being viewed culturally. 

“There’s been a thing over the last 15-20 years of ‘the nerd’ being defined as the unsexy outsider,” said Chappell, who defines “nerd spirit” as an obsessive but sincere interest in something unusual. “But if you look at bands like Weezer and the popularity of video games, you see nerds have penetrated our culture.”

The only place left to infiltrate, it seemed, was burlesque, and in “Nerdlesque,” men will strip down to their boxers and women will twirl in pasties with themes including “Star Trek” and “Where’s Waldo?”

Even if you don’t know your Wookies from your Klingons, the show offers something for everyone, said Chappell.

“There are a few references that might go over people’s heads, but the performers are really full of enthusiasm,” said Chappell. “And if nothing else, it’s attractive people taking their clothes off.”

And what nerd doesn’t love that?

“Nerdlesque” at the Brick Theater [575 Metropolitan Ave. between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907-6189], Dec. 11 at 11 pm. Tickets $10. For info, visit www.bricktheater.com/nerdlesque.

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Get ready for some theater fisticuffs

By Meredith Deliso

Finally, a theater series that asks the question, “Are you ready to rummmmble?”

The Brick’s annual celebration of on-stage violence, Fight Fest, returns to the Williamsburg theater next month, with swashbuckling vixens, John Waters-esque family dysfunction and good ol’ fashioned slapstick.

From Dec. 2-22, five distinct plays will bring it, including “Bandage,” which incorporates dance, stage combat and clowning to portray a tribal history of jesters, harlequins and Auguste clowns; the campy “Raising Cane: A Family Portrait,” which looks at a family of simpleton in-breeds who just love to beat each other up; and the Shakespeare inspired “Rapier Wit!” about seven swordswomen in 1607 England who illegally swashbuckle their way through the Bard’s great tragedies — to fast-paced comedic effect.

Can’t decide what to see? Check out the preview cabaret on Dec. 2, where you’ll get snippets of this year’s plays, so you and your friends can then decide which to put your money down on, with only minimal fighting.

Fight Fest at the Brick [575 Metropolitan Ave. between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907-6189], Dec. 2–22 with a free opening night cabaret. Tickets $15 for each show. For info, visit www.bricktheater.com.

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A play for all seasons

By Adam Warner

What do you get when you combine an ancient Greek myth, a pioneering theater ensemble, two experimental musicians, and a Hollywood movie star? Nothing less than an intoxicating, multimedia play fit for the gods.

Actress Julia Stiles, best known for her recurring role in the “Bourne” trilogy, trades the movies for the stage to join her longtime associates at Ridge Theater for “Persephone,” opening Oct. 26 at the BAM Harvey. 

For those who’ve forgotten their Greek mythology, the piece tells the story of Persephone (Stiles), a daughter of Zeus who is stolen by Hades. Though rescued by her mother Demeter, she is forced to remain in the Underworld for six months every year because she had consumed six pomegranate seeds while in Hades’s control.

The Ridge Theater’s adaptation of the myth is based around music, with vocalist Mimi Goese and composer Ben Neill bringing 19th-century compositions, contemporary rock, and electronica together for a mystical, emotional and psychedelic interpretation. 

“The word collaborative is really the key,” said Goese, who also plays Demeter. “It’s like we’re so aligned that we finish each other’s sentences.”

For the production, Goese and Neill bring our technologically prone pop and rock back to a more authentic place — which to them means the Romantic period. One way Neill does this through the “mutantrumpet,” his own invention that is inspired by 19th-century innovations. The gadget-infused horn can be played acoustically, but also acts as a remote control, triggering electronic sounds, such as the French horn and trombone.

“It’s a sort of Jules Verne approach to the myth,” said Neill. “We’re using stuff this company might have used back in 1895, but with contemporary materials. It was a very revolutionary time, and we want to capture that.” 

The piece also seeks to grasp the Romantic period’s intense interest in the wilderness, using paintings and colors from the period to emphasize this naturalist intrigue.

“The numerous elements have merged to produce an environment that feels very lush,” said Goese. “It’s like a six-foot long, claw-foot bath tub with flower petals and salt bubbles.”

“Persephone” at BAM Harvey [651 Fulton St. at Rockwell Place in Fort Greene, (718) 636-4100], Oct. 26-30 at 7:30 pm. Tickets $25-$70. For info, visit www.bam.org.

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Theater review: Camp classic gets even campier

By Stephen Brown

If you need a fix of camp and kitsch this Halloween season, look no further than the Brick’s production of “Plan 9 from Outer Space.” 

This tongue-in-cheek production of filmmaker Ed Wood’s hilariously awful movie follows in the footsteps of corny classics like “Airplane!” and the “Naked Gun” series. 

It may sound hard to believe, but this version of “Plan 9” actually outdoes those films’ Mel Brooks-ian, gag-a-minute style.

The plot — we’re being generous with that word — revolves around an extraterrestrial scheme to resurrect the dead and create havoc on earth. 

The production hews fairly close to the original, while throwing in a generous amount of slapstick humor and variety show-type interludes. The cast takes a few shots at the “Twilight” franchise — an easy way to pander to the audience, given that many of them are horror movie buffs — and at one point breaks into a zombie dance number. At another moment an intergalactic and effeminate tyrant named “Commander Bunny” lip syncs to a rowdy rock song.

But “Plan 9” brings more to the table than just cheese. Director Frank Cwiklik filmed some impressive video montages that are occasionally projected onto the wall in the back of the stage. 

Some of the cast really revels in the badness of the source material (in a good way, of course). Douglas MacKrell nails his role as a narrator straight out of a parody of “The Twilight Zone” (though no one can top the original narrator from “Plan 9”). Bob Laine plays one of the best cop-zombies you’ll find anywhere this Halloween. Justin Plowman as Col. Edwards valiantly attempts to fill the role of straight-man, and Craig Peterson got some big laughs as an effeminate intergalactic henchman (yes, many of the aliens are dandies).

If low-brow is your thing, it can’t get much lower than this — and it’s a great way to get in the Halloween mood.

So grab a few beers and ham it up with the cast — they probably won’t mind if you get as rowdy as them.

“Plan 9 from Outer Space” at the Brick Theater [575 Metropolitan Ave. near Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907-6189] runs through Oct. 31. Shows are Thursdays through Sundays, $20. For info, visit www.bricktheater.com.

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'Naked Lunch' meets 'Brokeback Mountain'

By Adam Warner

Who needs the classic Western movie when you can be stampeded by a mind-bending and introspective cowboy dance-drama?

Yvan Greenberg’s take on the tired ol’ genre, “Git Along Lil Doggies,” will do just that when it opens at the Brick Theater tonight — a spirited romp that blends elements of Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness,” William S. Burroughs’s psychedelic novels, country-western line dance and gay pornography (but, really, what straight play is complete without that?).

At its core, the play is still about the mysterious and untamed Wild West.

“I’d call it a cowboy show,” said Greenberg, who is the director and founder of Laboratory Theater. “But I wasn’t seeing my idea of what a cowboy is or represents, so I made my own.”

Like any good western, “Git Along Lil Doggies” does have a classic plot: two outlaw cowboys, Kim Carsons and The Kid, are hunting an old adversary through a rough and tumble backdrop. 

But any similarity between this and “High Noon” ends here. Mix some “Brokeback Mountain” with “Naked Lunch,” then add in a brothel madam named Salt Chunk Mary and some pagan hoodoo for good measure, and you’re approaching this play’s territory.

And not even “Blazing Saddles” had a “sex-magical ritual” like this play — a scene that includes mystical dancing, S&M harnesses, and Mexican wrestling masks.

“There’s classic cowboy elements, but with a twist,” said the ever-understated Greenberg.

Projected video landscapes create the backdrop, made up of old Marlboro cigarette ad scenes that have been vividly repainted, and country-western recordings from the 1920s and ’30s combine with contemporary new age music to create an immersive soundscape.  

The scenery is continuously introduced, reflecting the characters’s present mindsets and the transformations they’re going through.  

“The protagonist embodies the landscape,” said Greenberg. “A bond between nature and cowboy is explored.”

The traditionally moral-laden western, with its concepts of good and evil, is left in the ditch as Greenberg emphasizes the mystery of life.

“Kim and The Kid are able to utilize the unknown that is inherently within all of us,” Greenberg said. “Farmers, cowboys, and others who are intimately tied to the land have to reconcile with this all the time, like when they have to kill an animal they’ve raised from birth.”

Metaphysical stuff aside, did we mention there’s a shoot-out at the end?

“Git Along Lil Doggies” at the Brick Theater [575 Metropolitan Ave. near Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907-6189], Oct. 14-30 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. Tickets, $18. For info, visit www.bricktheater.com.

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'Space' oddity lands at the Brick

By Meredith Deliso

“Plan Nine from Outer Space” may be the worst movie ever made, but that’s not stopping one theater troupe from bringing it to the stage.

From Oct. 8-31, the Brick Theater in Williamsburg will host DMTheatrics’ take on Ed Wood’s classically bad film about aliens and zombies that take over the earth.

“It’s partially a spoof of the original movie and a spoof of every sci-fi and action movie cliché,” said director Frank Cwiklik. 

“Ed had no skill, ability, talent, no craft whatsoever, but he had enthusiasm, and instinctively knew how to keep an audience happy,” he added. “So this show, much like Ed’s movies, is solely meant to entertain you.”

There’s definitely lots to work with. “Plan Nine” plays and looks like the 1950s sci-fi thriller on which it is based, beginning with a trio of flying saucers descending upon a suburb of Los Angeles, using — what else — power rays to raise the dead in a plot to take over the earth. And it’s up to a bumbling duo of cops to save the day.

Wood may have thought otherwise about his own talents, but Cwiklik and company are well aware of the script’s limitations — from awful, comically casual dialogue, a poorly built set that had tombstones falling over, and three completely different actors playing the same part. They also keep to the do-it-yourself look of the original, without betraying the troupe’s own aesthetic.

“I want shows to look like they cost 10 times as much as they did,” said Cwiklik. “I don’t want to give away too many surprises, though you will believe a saucer can fly.”

This isn’t the first time DMTheatrics has brought a familiar text to new light. A previous adaptation of “Macbeth” — called “Bitch Macbeth” — was a futuristic S&M fantasia.

“We want to get people attracted to theater, people who are often scared off from bad experiences — maybe dragged to a bad production of ‘Hamlet’ in high school — get excited and entertained, and come back again,” said Cwiklik. “Our theater is a gateway drug.”

“Plan Nine from Outer Space!” at the Brick Theater [575 Metropolitan Ave. near Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907-6189], Fridays and Saturdays at 10 pm, Oct. 8-16; and Thursday through Saturday at 10 pm; and Sundays at 8 pm from Oct. 21-31. Tickets $20. For info, visit www.dm-theatrics.com.

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Clown around at this theater festival

By Stephen Brown

They may be clowning around — but it’s still art.

An all-out clown fest is going down at the Brick Theater in September, but this isn’t just your run-of-the-mill circus act. In fact, it’s an interactive, emotional roller coaster that will highlight the diversity of one of America’s most-misunderstood and underappreciated art forms. (The French have mimes, we have clowns.)

“There is a lot of story involved in our performances,” said Aubrey Crabtree, the co-director of the New York Clown Theater Festival. “Most of our work examines adult themes, sometimes sexual themes.”

To get the audience in the right frame of mind, the festival will open up with a gathering of clowns that will bring a smile to kids’ faces and terror to anyone with a hint of coulrophobia.

First, about 150 to 200 clowns, along with stilt walkers and a brass band, will assemble at some unionized square in Manhattan on Sept. 3 at around 5 pm. The crowd will then take the L train to Bedford Avenue, where they will march to the Brick Theater and begin an epic, hours-long pie fight that is open to anyone with the guts to go toe-to-toe with the pros.

“People go in groups of eight or so and you have a certain designated amount of time and pies,” said Crabtree. “The theater will be covered in plastic, and you can hose off afterwards.”

There will be a party after the pie fight, and the next day the month of clown performances begins.

Crabtree, who is a clown herself, said that the real pleasure of performing is the spontaneous moments that spring from interaction with the audience, making each show unique.

“I love the moment when people decide to play along,” Crabtree said. “Whether they’re just observing or up on the stage with you, they’re joining in and engaging in some playful way.”

One of the highlights of the fest is “The Last Show You’ll Ever See,” a one-woman show — clowns typically work in pairs — in which the clown and her trombone/companion prepare for the coming apocalypse with the prerequisite tomfoolery and pratfalls.

But these clowns aren’t just hunting for laughs — they have feelings, too.

“Clowning can be a cathartic experience,” she said. “The clowns are making analogies to our own behavior.

“Maybe the clown is doing a bit about having difficulty putting items in a bag — but that could be a metaphor for how hard it is for us to get our lives together.”

Some shows will feature “undercover” clowns who dress like regular folks, but get into absurd situations. Others will have clowns in more typical garb — but they work entirely in silence. Some will be musicians; others will focus more on interaction with the audience. A few shows also cater to kids.

The possibilities are endless.

“There is laughter, empathy, sadness, frustration, and pure joy — hopefully the audience is along for the whole thing,” Crabtree said.

The New York Clown Theater Festival at The Brick [575 Metropolitan Ave. near Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907-6189], Sept. 3-26. Tickets $15 ($10 for weekend matinee family shows). Check www.bricktheater.com for showtimes.

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Cowboys and spacement collide at the Brick

At the Brick Theater this month, you’ll be sure to laugh and cry, just like the Greeks intended.

The Williamsburg space’s latest plays, “Devils” and “Spacemen from Space,” running Aug. 12–29, explore torture and singing cowboys, respectively.

The one thing they have in common is the playwright and director — Gravesend resident Ian W. Hill, of the theater company Gemini CollisionWorks.

“Devils,” the decidedly darker of his two, tells the true story of Urbain Grandier, a 17th-century French priest who was executed after nuns accused him of being in league with demons.

The lighter “Spacemen from Space,” inspired by old movie serials from the 1930s, features singing cowboys, gangsters, G-men, aliens, mad scientists and good scientists who fly around fighting crime with jetpacks on their backs.

“It’s all about playing all of these ridiculous concepts so seriously as they do in the old movie serials,” said Hill. “The more everyone treats them with such importance, the funnier it gets.”

The two productions couldn’t be more extreme, though both touch upon similar themes, said Hill.

“Even though it’s a completely silly, almost frivolous play, underneath it all, ’Spacemen from Space’ is very much about the exact same themes as ‘Devils’ — anti-scientific thought, anti-intellectual thought, and other abuses of irrational thought,” said the playwright. “Once you look at the torture in ‘Devils,’ I don’t think you can quite look at the light-hearted torture of ‘Spacemen from Space’ quite the same way.”

“Devils” at The Brick [575 Metropolitan Ave. near Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907-6189], Aug. 13–14, 19, 21, 26–27 and 28 at 8 pm and Aug. 15 and 29 at 2 pm. “Spacemen from Space,” Aug. 12, 17 and 20 at 8 pm, Aug. 15 and 22 at 7 pm, and Aug. 14 and 22 at 2 pm. Tickets $18 for both. For info, visit www.bricktheater.com.

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It's not all about torture

Sure, Crystal Skillman's new play may be all about torture, but the Boreum Hill playwright isn't all about doom and gloom.

In fact, here are her offerings for enjoying a night on the town when you head to The Brick in Williamsburg to see her new play, "The Vigil or The Guided Cradle," in previews starting Thursday and running until May 8:

DuMont

432 Union Ave. between Devoe Street and Metropolitan Avenue

"Everything I've had there makes me more and more excited. It's an amazing restaurant."

Barcade

388 Union Ave. between Ainslie and Powers streets

"For the people who like it old school and like to drink and play Donkey Kong. It's for the geek in all of us."

Alligator Lounge

600 Metropolitan Ave. near Lorimer Street

"They give free pizza." Enough said.

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"Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury" returns

By popular demand, Piper McKenzie is presenting a remount of "Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury," one of the critical and popular hits of December 2009’s Fight Fest at The Brick Theater.

Can one perverted simian overcome his family, a gang of grotesque predators and Mother Nature herself to evolve to the next level of life? Or will he end up just another damn dead monkey?

Combining elements of comparative mythology, silent comedy, capoeira, video game violence and modern dance, Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury features a troupe of actor/dancers performing in the unique wordless style of Piper McKenzie’s “Bizarre Science Fantasy” series, which yielded Macbeth Without Words, Sexadelic Cemetery and a number of other singular theatrical experiences.

The result is a savage, sexy, slapstick spectacular that pumps new theatrical life into the notion of “survival of the fittest.”

Craven Monkey performs at The Brick Theater, 575 Metropolitan Avenue between Union and Lorimer streets in Williamsburg, February 26-27 at 10:30 p.m., March 4, 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $12; call 212-352-3101 or 212-868-4444 for more.

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A history of violence

The Brick Theater has been on quite the streak lately.

Following “Fight Festival,” its month-long celebration of fight choreography, this month, the Williamsburg space presents “A Brief History of Murder,” two interlocking plays that explore violence.

In a collision of Grand Guignol, David Lynch, Broadway musicals and police procedurals, the two independent plays – “Detectives” and “Victims” – both tell the story of a series of grisly killings in the small town of Sentinel, OK.

The former follows an intrepid private investigator and her colleagues as they try to track down the killer, while “Victims” reveals the dark underbelly of Sentinel as its colorful inhabitants become tangled in horrific events beyond their control (for those faint of heart, both plays include gore, as well as graphic nudity).

Written by Richard Lovejoy (one of the creators of “Adventure Quest, which ran at The Brick’s Antidepressant Festival last summer),” the production runs January 14-January 31 at the Brick (575 Metropolitan Ave.). Tickets are $18 for either play, or $25 for both. For more information, call 718-907-6189.

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Grab a cutlass, and en guard

By Meredith Deliso

With its New York Clown Theater Festival, the Brick Theater has become the destination for clown theater each fall.

Now, it with its upcoming Fight Fest, the Williamsburg theater looks to do the same for another obscure performance genre: stage combat.

From December 4 to 20, The Brick will provide a home for a broad spectrum of fight choreography (think musicals, but instead of breaking out in songs, the characters fight), with everything from martial arts to capoeira, swordplay to firearms.

Stage combat seems to be at a tipping point, says Timothy Haskell, what with “The Soul of Shaolin,” a Chinese martial arts spectacle, on Broadway earlier this year, the martial arts-based “Jump,” which ran for 10 months last year at the Union Square Theatre, and the Weinstein Company’s interest in bringing “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” to Broadway.

“It’s pervasive,” says Haskell, who joins Qui Nguyen and Abby Marcus of Vampire Cowboys Theater Company, and the staff at The Brick, in curating the festival. “It seems like the right time because there’s a real interest in this kind of theater.”

Haskell got into stage combat himself in 2003, directing a production of “Road House,” the Patrick Swayze movie, for the stage. For Fight Fest, he’ll direct “Last Life,” starring Taimak of the legendary fight film, with the fight directed by Rod Kinter.

“I want to create something on stage that is as exciting as an action movie because people will tend to go see a really bad action movie before they see a really good play,” says Haskell.

“Last Life” will be one of 10 diverse shows offered through the three-week festival, which the theater hopes to make an annual event. Genres from street fighting to martial arts to “Three Musketeer-style fighting,” will be included, says Haskell. “We’re trying to make it as eclectic as possible.”

After directing the fight for The Brick’s 2006 production “The Kung Fu Importance of Being Earnest,” Qui Nguyen returns to the theater with “The Ninja Cherry Orchard,” a play off the Chekhov piece directed by Michael Gardner. Nguyen will also direct the fight for the martial arts fairy tale “Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Carnage,” presented by Piper McKenzie Productions, the creators of “Macbeth Without Words.”

Also presenting in the festival are Depth Charge, with “Butterfly, Butterfly, Kill Kill Kill!,” inspired by Japanese B-movie director Seijun Suzuki’s 1967 accidental masterpiece “Branded to Kill”; Fighto LLP, with the swashbuckling comedy romance “The Buccaneer”; Ten Directions with “Deck the Hallmans!,” just in time for the holidays; En Garde Entertainment with “Evolution” (pictured), which features a cast of 24 fighters using anything they can get their hands on — broadswords, smallswords, spears, guns, rocks, you name it; and Cat Fight Productions with “Power Burn 3,” a full-on — you guessed it — cat fight.

The festival will also feature several cabarets, including a free preview of the mainstage shows on opening night, and a glimpse of “The Zombie Project: The Story of Icarus Phoenix,” directed by Stephanie Cox-Williams.

With the theater’s intimate setting, you’ll see every kick, punch and flip right in your face. And, unlike in film, there’s no room for editing or second takes.

“We’re going to see a level of choreography rarely seen on stage,” says Haskell. “There’s going to be a lot of honesty, as much as possible without someone getting hurt.”

Fight Fest runs at The Brick (575 Metropolitan Ave.) from December 1-20 (with extensions through January 10 TBA). All shows run multiple nights. Tickets are $18 for each show and can be purchased by calling Theatermania at 212-352-3101/212-868-4444, or online. For more information, call 718-907-6189.

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Clowning around

The Brick Theater, Inc. presents Amuse Bouche: A NY Clown Theatre Festival Hors D’oeuvre with performances on a repertory schedule, September 4-27 at The Brick, 575 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg.

The Brick is presenting five clown theatre originals including Happy Hour presents And It Feels So Good! New York’s premiere physical comedy trio Happy Hour is comprised of Mark Gindick (Big Apple Circus), Ambrose Martos (Cirque du Soleil) and Matthew Morgan (Ringling Bros.). They transcend formulaic circus comedy to create an evening of theater that is remarkably genuine, occasionally absurd, definitely sweaty and wildly funny. They are performing September 23–26 at 8 p.m. and September 27 at 3 p.m.

Harrington & Kauffman presents Cabaret Terrarium starring Richard Harrington and Chris Kauffman. In this epic comedy of amnesia and redemption, watch Belgian cabaret singer Gustave and his silent assistant Nhar travel the world in search of clues about Gustave’s family and his own shadowy past. Shows are September 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. and September 20 at 3 p.m.

Aimee German and Jennifer Sargent present Canarsie Suite: At the Edge of Vaudeville. As the Vaudeville era closes, the illustrious LeRoy Sister-Act unravels at the seams. A “hilarious” (ThreeWeeks), tawdry carnival of dance, song, knife throwing, acrobatic gorillas, and High Melodrama based on 1910 Vaudeville scripts that swings and stomps along the edge of farce and drama. Shows are September 4 & 5 at 8 p.m. and September 11 & 12 at 10 p.m.

Ten Directions presents Icetacles: The Last Chance of a Lifetime as Ice Castles, The Cutting Edge and Rocky collide on skates. When a has-been coach brings two sightless skaters together to win the big competition we learn that sometimes the one you love is the person you hate the most and winning is all that really matters. Performances are September 8, 15 and 22 at 8 p.m.

Logic Limited, Ltd. Presents Schaden, Freude And You: A 3 Clown Seminar directed by Jane Nichols and featuring Chris Arruda, Brad Fraizer and David Graham Jones. Join them for the self-help seminar that’s guaranteed to self-destruct on September 11 & 12 at 8 p.m. and September 18 & 19 at 9:30 p.m.

Tickets, priced at $15, are available at www.bricktheater.com or through Theatermania (212-352-3101).

The Brick Theater is between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street. Also, call about varying family and age suitability of the shows, 718-907-6189.

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