ODD MAN OUT
A LIVE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE IN COMPLETE DARKNESS
Performances began Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Final performance Saturday, February 19, 2022
At The Flea Theater (20 Thomas Street)
Odd Man Out is a LIVE immersive play in darkness. It begins when “passengers” enter a dimly lit space guided by a flight attendant. Passengers put on their headphones and their blindfolds. From there, the story allows listeners to immerse themselves in the tale of Alberto, a blind musician flying home from New York to Buenos Aires, Argentina, after decades of self-exile. As listeners enter Alberto’s story of love, prejudice and fears that were left behind, they experience a 360-surround sound, multisensory “journey.”
Because passengers are blindfolded through the entire duration of the flight, the action can be experienced by way of auditory stimulation, tactile objects and enriched smells. VIP passengers will be able to have their sense of taste piqued as well. All passengers will even feel weather happening around them. This experience engages and awakens the senses, tests limits, and ultimately uses the darkness to bring the audience to a new light.
Odd Man Out began at Teatro Ciego in Argentina, which has a 15-year history of creating live experiences in complete darkness. The theater company employs artists and technicians with visual disabilities in all their work. Forty percent of staff and creative teams are made up of blind and low-vision individuals.
The cast of Odd Man Out features Gonzalo Trigueros, Nael Raza, Ignacio Borderes, Alejandra Buljevich, Holly Connor, Andrés Montejo, Carmen Borla, Modesto Lacen, Victoria Raigorodsky, and Aksel Tang.
Odd Man Out features original music, arrangements, and music direction by Mirko Mescia, sound design by Nicolas Álvarez, dramaturgy by Carlos Armesto and Aksel Tang, and storytelling revisions by Matias Guzman. NY producers are Carlos Armesto (lead producer), Lola Guardone (executive producer), and Malcolm March (associate producer). Jonathan Vidal and Lucila Brindisi are Directors of Marketing and Communications and the disability consultant is Alie Gorrie.
Odd Man Out premiered at Teatro Ciego in October 2019 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Performed by six actors entirely in the dark, Odd Man Out relied on binaural immersive sound design, a delicate choreography and the innovative use of smell and touch to create the landscape of its world and characters with a cast composed of majority artists that have either partial or complete vision loss.
Following the Spanish production in Argentina, Teatro Ciego partnered with theatreC to premiere Odd Man Out in the U.S. in February, 2020 at an English-Language workshop presentation. The cast of American actors rehearsed in Argentina and presented excerpts from the play at the American Embassy in preparation for a New York Production. This was followed by a production at The Flea Theater in New York in November and December of 2021.