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Target Margin (TM): P*SSYC*CK KNOW NOTHING has been explained in so many different ways. From your own perspective (aka the perspective of someone who has been working with the material over the past few months) how would you explain it?
Lori Vega (LV): Hmm this is a good question. I think to sum up simply I would say the show is about agency. When and how a person (namely women in this story) grapple in claiming or reclaiming their own agency; whether it’s over their bodies, their finances, their relationships, their marriages and/or whether or not they marry or don’t marry at all.
TM: What drew you to a piece like P*SSYC*CK KNOW NOTHING?
LV: Well I’ve been fortunate enough to have been working with TMT on this material over the last two years, and I’ve always found whenever we delve into specific stories that each one of them always has something a bit confusing and challenging and magical and comical all at the same time. These specific stories we’ve been focusing on in the Nights are particularly challenging in trying to understand, because some of the imagery depicted in them is so violent and disturbing. You can’t shy away from the physical violence in it. It’s vivid and it’s brutal and it’s real. And as it is with most topics that are challenging, you have to look right at it in order to address it or even understand it. Working our way through the violent aspects of these stories only helped to highlight the strength and agency of the female characters for me.
TM: How does P*SSYC*CK KNOW NOTHING fit within the telling of “The One Thousand and One Nights”? Were you familiar with the work beforehand or is this a fresh start for you with these stories?
LV: This show follows the Shahrazad frame story in the same way the other stories we examined in ‘Pay No Attention to the Girl’ and ‘Marjana’ did. However, this particular translation gives a slightly different interpretation to the Shahrazad frame giving specific attention to the King’s thoughts and POV. So it’s interesting to see how her story telling might be effecting him or how the translator’s placement of the larger frame story is used as a tool for Shahrazad to make the case for her own life. It puts the life/death aspect of why these stories are being told in the first place that much more into relief. And reminds us all the more how shrewd, smart and brave Shahrazad really is!
TM: What are you most excited for audiences to see with this new adaptation of the Silk Road stories?
LV: These stories take on a more serious tone in some parts. There’s still lots of fun and frivolity and magic to be had, but I’m interested to see and hear what the audience might take away from some of the more troubling themes in this section of the Nights. Also as the only female identifying performer in the cast, I’m more curious to see how this story plays out given some of the violent subject matter that happens to most of the female characters in the story and what new or illuminating things we can take from them if any.
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Lori Vega is thrilled to be working with Target Margin for the first time. NYC credits include: If On A Winter’s Night at The Tank, The Protest at Cherry Lane, Quartemaine’s Terms at TACT, Mail Order Bride at The Beckett Theatre, La Tempestad at The (old) Ohio and Men and Women Talking Love and Sex at The Davenport Theatre. Regional: Halftime with Don at NJ Rep. Co., As You Like It with Lake Tahoe Shakespeare and Idaho Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Lake Tahoe Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet with Saratoga Shakespeare, Peter Pan with Dorset Theatre Festival, The Consul, The Tramp and America’s Sweetheart with Oldcastle Theatre Co. www.lorivega.net.