Elevator Repair Service "Arguendo"

The case of Barnes v. Glen Theatre, argued before the supreme court in 1991, was brought by a group of go-go dancers who claimed a First Amendment right to dance totally nude, despite an Indiana law that said they couldn’t. In oral argument, the Justices debated the definition of dance, nudity in opera houses vs. strip-clubs, and whether naked erotic dancing was artistic expression or a crime.
The envelope-pushing theatre company Elevator Repair Service—known for its powerful word-for-word stage adaptations of great works of literature like The Great Gatsby and The Sound and the Fury—have created a verbatim staging of both the transcript of this case’s oral argument and an interview with an erotic dancer who came to listen. The production design features a swirl of animated text projections by video artist Ben Rubin and a re-imagined supreme court on rolling chairs. The drama that emerges is by turns absurd, provocative, and hilarious.

Parental discretion advised: nudity.

This performance is made possible by the W. Ford Schumann ’50 Endowment for the Arts and the Lipp Family Fund for Performing Artists.