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31
tuesday
In the early years of Saturday Night Live, Dan Aykroyd hosted a ‘bad theater’ segment in which the cast mocked overly pretentious avant-garde theater that tried to convey serious themes in unpredictable ways. Although a quick summary of Saint Genet l’Africain—a multicultural, modern dance-theater work about a sadistic prison guard and two prisoners with revenge (and homoeroticism) on their minds—might lead some to similarly sneer, reviews of its 2003 British run were generally positive. Directed by Yoshi Oida, Saint is a hybrid effort that draws its themes from Jean Genet’s play The Maids, about servants and their sado-masochistic dreams about their employer, and his jailhouse film Un chant d’amour. In the ’50s, U.S. authorities banned Genet’s oeuvre; now, dancers and choreographers from Benin, Brazil, and Turkey—aided by a Brazilian percussionist—present a version of his often-frightening vision onstage, just in time for Halloween. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, 2700 F St. NW. $38. (202) 467-4600. (Steve Kiviat)