• Image: Vicki Victoria

The Mammaries of Tiresias

In conjunction with the exhibition Strange, Actors Ensemble of Berkeley presents this rarely performed theatrical work by French playwright Guillaume Apollinaire. In promoting the play’s premiere in 1903, Apollinaire described it as “surreal,” a term that was later appropriated by André Breton to define an entire art movement. The Mammaries of Tiresias subverts ideas of sexual identity, gender norms, and the need for early twentieth-century French society to repopulate after World War I. Watch as the dream world collides with the waking in this production, directed by Meryn MacDougall, from an English translation by Maya Slater.