The Weird Tree

At

The New York International Fringe Festival

Theatre is Easy REVIEW

"Simultaneously embracing and reinventing the fairytale structure, The Weird Tree will intrigue fans of abstract, playful, and ambitious experimental work."

"The text is gorgeous and layered"

"If you believe, as I do, that theater should push the boundaries of reality, devise wild ambitious experiments, and reflect the unknowable depths of the human spirit, then The Weird Tree will not disappoint."

Venue 15:

The Robert Moss Theatre at 440 Studios

440 Lafayette, near Astor Place

6 to Astor Pl

N, R to 8th St NYU

nytheater now REVIEW

"[The cast] are uniformly good, using both subtle and over-the-top physical movements to embody the many characters they play."
"The Weird Tree is a kind of Pilgrim’s Progress, which makes for an heady experience. Though I’m still not entirely sure what happens to the man and his 18 princesses, I was fascinated the whole time."

Theater in the Now REVIEW

"[Director] Petkovsek never ceases to amaze. He kept the piece moving, jumping from scene to scene, incorporating a blend of live and recorded voiceovers"

"The acting company made Petkovsek’s world look enchanted."
"The Weird Tree is an incredibly specific piece of experimental theater.... But appreciation for Petkovsek's art of storytelling should be celebrated. Everyone needs a little weird in their life, right?"

Princesses are often found in Fairy Tales but only the Slovenian fairy tale The Weird Tree has Eighteen Princesses. In a Tree. (There’s also another Princess on the ground). Add in the Moon, the Sun, the Wind, the Devil, and their Mothers, and you have the tale of a Man who starts out on a quest to win a Princess but instead discovers how far people will go in order to determine their own destiny.

Ever since he listened to the original fairy tale on a cassette in his youth, Slovenian Director Peter Petkovsek has been drawn to The Weird Tree’s elegant symbolic quality. "It's a beautiful allegory of how life often steers us off the path we set ourselves on," he says, "and puts new challenges in front of us. The Weird Tree represents a spiritual journey where one needs to ask oneself, ‘Who am I really and what is important to me in this moment?’ It puts man in perspective with himself, but also in a relationship with the wider cosmos."

Initially developed as part of Petkovsek's studies at Columbia University's MFA Theatre Arts Program, The Weird Tree is a devised piece developed by the Ensemble using text by Tingying Ma, Peter Petkovsek, Jocelyn Shratter and Laura Zlatos.