Aporkalypse!

Performance Ensemble performed their new satire Aporkalypse! at the Network of Ensemble Theaters Summit in June 2009. 

Aporkalypse!

Flu pandemic! Cover your mouth. Don’t breathe in or better yet, don’t breathe at all. Blame it on the pigs, birds, and cows. Never mind the fact we fed that cow his own brain. Blame it on the Mexicans, the Asians, the British, respectively. They are the ‘other.’ Close up the border! Don’t mingle with pigs. Call security if you see a coughing Asian. Watch out–that cow is crazy! Your surgical mask will save you. If all else fails, lets just take them out.

Pandemonium, being in a state of emergency, of panic, creates a great distraction for the masses. Fear begets blame. This satirical performance explores America’s ethnocentricism cultivated by varying states of fear, panic, and anger towards nations, immigrant and ‘alien’ populations, those the American media, throughout history, have designated as the other.