About Ravenshead

Ravenshead is a tour-de-force, combining a brilliant, multi-faceted score with the dazzling physicality and mordant wit of Rinde Eckert in performance. A meditation on the meaning of heroism versus hubris, of competence versus charisma, this material might be dull and pedantic in other hands, but brilliant composer Steve Mackey, acclaimed writer/performer Rinde Eckert and the phenomenal Paul Dresher Ensemble Electro-Acoustic Band pull off what the New York press called “… equal parts MTV video and Metropolitan Opera. The finale was a sheer blowout of energy.”

Ravenshead’s point of departure is the real life story of Donald Crowhurst, a British entrepreneur who attempted to showcase his new electronic navigational tool by entering a solo sailing race around the world. In Ravenshead, his fictional counterpart, Richard Ravenshead, can cope with dangerous weather, shoddy equipment , scarce supplies and physical pain. He cannot cope with the pressure of fame and the specter of public failure.

After months at sea — hopelessly behind, his boat leaking, his steering gear falling apart, dangerously low on supplies — Ravenshead begins to construct an alternate reality, placing his drive and intelligence in the service of deception. False log books, misleading radio reports of his position — all carefully calculated to save face.

He sings:

Finish second, it becomes my business and my business alone.
Finish back in the pack.
Tell the world what it wants to hear and go home.

A brilliant man, Ravenshead’s deception is so vivid and compelling that it forces his competition to take unneccesary risks, and one by one, each drops out of the race. Faced with certain exposure and humiliation, Ravenshead at last confronts reality.

As the tension mounts from beginning to end, Ravenshead is so skillfully crafted that the finale — a mad scene worthy of Shakespeare — seems both shocking and inevitable.

February 22, 23, 24 @ 8 P.M.
February 25 @ 7 P.M.

Theater Artaud
450 Florida Street @ 17th