UND3RGR0UND
Adapted from Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground by
Dane Eissler & Damien J. Wallace
December 2020
Your Computer
Dostoyevsky’s existential masterpiece meets
the 1985 MOVE Bombing.
Undergr0undM4n has been hiding in the shadows for over 30 years. He emerges from his isolation to speak to you. Are you friend or foe? Is it safe for him to re-emerge? Has the system changed? He tests the waters, uploading secret messages to you through your computer, Facebook, email, video messages, and blogs. Then one evening, you receive an anonymous invitation to fully enter his digital - and mental - world. He comes to visit you on your computer. The further you delve, the closer you come to understanding his life as a black man in America. In this world premiere adaptation, EgoPo transports Dostoyevsky's 19th century existential masterpiece to contemporary Philadelphia with the city's own controversial racial history as its new setting.
Show sponsored by Dr. Joel & Mrs. Bobbie Porter
Creative Team
Dane Eissler … Director/Production Management
Marie Laster … Set Designer
Taj Rauch … Cameraman/Editor
Chris Sannino … Sound Designer & Engineer
Abby Leyh … Stage Manager
Shane Harkins … Assistant Stage Manager
Kylie Westerbeck … Production Photos
Cast
Damien J. Wallace & Niya Colbert
About Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (11 November/30 October 1821 – 9 February/28 January 1881) was a Russian philosopher, novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist.
He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces. Dostoevsky's literary works explore the human condition in the troubled political, social and spiritual atmospheres of 19th century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), The Adolescent (1875) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). His Notes from Underground, a novella published in 1864, is considered one of the first works of existentialist literature.