THE FLEECING
An immersive performance art bacchanalia where the experience
of the audience member takes center stage.
THE FLEECING RETURNS FEB 18, 19, 25, 26, MARCH 4 & 5
Tell no one. Invite Everyone. Update your zoom.
The Fleecing returns to the digital realm after a critically acclaimed and spiritually calamitous run in 2021. The Order of Mammon must contend with the Bumblefish’s silence since a mysterious message one year ago has left the Order in chaos. Which of the Devotees will win the war of ideas, sacred dances, acrobatic feats, and prognostication, and lead the acolytes into the future? Only you can decide.
Welcome to The Order of Mammon,
a secret society dedicated to power, money, and our beloved and feared deity, The Bumblefish.
As newly initiated acolytes, it is your job to choose the most worthy devotee performer to serve as an earthly vessel for our cult’s scaly God.
As you make your way through the Order’s Secret Sacred Sanctum you may encounter lavish displays of circus, one-on-one immersive rituals, creatures, clowns, and characters of all variety as the devotees vie for you to place your voting tokens in their alters.
Which devotee will prove they are worthy to be the next host for the Bumblefish?
Will they even survive should they be chosen?! (historically… they don’t.)
Only you can decide the future of The Order at The Fleecing.
“A witty and alluring world where Douglas Adams meets Monty Python meets Almanac’s signature pairing of earnest, personal theatricality and circus feats... This is the fleecing for which the show is named—a process absurd enough to mask its injustice, and so much fun we don’t mind the absurdity.”
— Megan Stern, thINKingDANCE
“The Fleecing mastered something that I haven’t seen done anywhere else: it created a remote theatre experience that felt fully immersive, deeply textured, and completely open, all while centering a tight narrative that works whether or not you catch all of its nuance.”
— Leah Davis, No Proscenium
“Hilarious and sedative for the anxious but adventuresome nerd, The Fleecing was one for the books and the soul.”
— Gina Palumbo, The Dance Journal
Credits
Originally performed in February 2015 at 1fiftyone gallery
Conceived by Nick Gillette, Ben Grinberg, Adam Kerbel, Lauren Harries and Nick Jonczak. Featuring Adam Kerbel, Kristen Schier, Melissa Krodman, Elizabeth Weinstein, Evelyn Langley and Alyssa Kenamer, Evalina Wallis Cain Carbonell, Ansley Sawyer, Faith Benamy, Vanita Kalra and Jennifer Kidwell.
Performed February 2018 at Macpherson Manor
Featuring Fred Brown, Martha Stuckey, Jimmy Grzlak, John Hawthorne, Jess Adams, Melissa Krodman, Nick Gillette, Evelyn Langley, Joseph Ahmed, Karen Smith, Nicole Burgio, Mark Wong, Brett Robinson, Desiree Hall, and Dave Gillies, with design and direction by Ben Grinberg and Robin Stamey.
Read the IMMERSED review by Jon Kobryn here.
Performed December 2016 at PowerPlant Productions
Featuring Adam Kerbel, Nick Gillette, Lauren Johns, Mark Wong, Steve Lunder, Brett Robinson, Karen Smith, Melissa Krodman, Peter Smith, Jenson Titus Lavallee, Alexandra Tartarsky, with design and direction by Ben Grinberg, Nick Jonczak, and Robin Stamey.
Read the thINKingDance review by Megan Stern here.
Performed November 2019 at Macpherson Manor
Featuring Avi Pryntz-Nadworny, John Hawthrone, Viktoria Lange, Mark Kennedy, Lauren Johns, Dana Herbert, Jillian Jetton, Yannick Trapman-O-Brien, Mae West, Ben Grinberg, Desiree Hall, Nick Gillette, Frankie Ferrari, Avi Wolf, Mia Rocchio, Nathan Alford-Tate, and Jess Adams.
Watch a teaser of the 2019 rendition here.
Performed February 2021 Virtually
Featuring Nathan Alford-Tate, Mia Rocchio, Lauren Johns, Mae West, Maya Jackson, Yannick Trapman-O'Brien, Brett Robinson, Sierra Rhoades, Kevin Flanagan, Stephen Doutt, Rachel Rees, Emma Becerra, Lili Valencia, Ben Grinberg.
Read the No Proscenium review by Leah Davis here and the author’s extension of this review here.
Read the Dance Journal review by Gina Palumbo here.
The 2021 virtual Secret Sacred Sanctum has been archived for your post-show snooping pleasure.
Access the waiting room here: https://orderofmammon.carrd.co/
Access the Sanctum here: https://thefleecing.carrd.co/
