mugwumpin is headed to Cairo!
We are honored to represent the United States in October at the Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre, the largest festival of its kind in the Middle East.  We’ll be bringing to the festival super:anti:reluctant, an original performance we created in 2006 to great acclaim.

Of our entire body of work, this is the right play for this journey, because it is our most American play. In fact, by delving into the American Hero, we search for something fundamental about being American. And we don’t shy from the ugly or the beautiful. In a part of the world that may not have many opportunities to see Americans self-appraising, super:anti:reluctant could inspire audiences to consider us in a new light.

About super:anti:reluctant
Originally created by Sarah Elovich, Joseph Estlack, Denmo Ibrahim, Leda Lum, Celeste Martinez, and Christopher W. White.

Dead were all the heroes. Until now.

By shamelessly unmasking your obsession with the American hero, mugwumpin’s latest ensemble-created assemblage investigates various heroic archetypes and their sway over our culture. Original and found music, text, gesture, and sheer freakishness conjoin to create a stunning visual and physical experience. mugwumpin’s parallel universe reveals the myths that live among us.

Co-artistic director and performer Denmo Ibrahim says: “Imagine Superman before the call to danger and after the flight from safety – what does he do when he’s not needed, where does he go, and must he always escape back into the mundane world of Clark Kent?  super:anti:reluctant explores the solitary, lonely world the hero endures.  It also asks, ‘why do we need heroes?’  Is it because deep within each of us we truly believe that we are also far from normal people?”

Co-artistic director Christopher W. White recognizes the potential danger certain heroes can pose to themselves and to society: “When we look at a certain type of hero, the soldier or the fireman, we see that the costs of heroism can be quite high.  But there are subtler costs, such as the isolation from others.  And there are societal costs – in looking at the cowboy or frontiersman as a type of American hero, we can see that the individualism and desire for expansion he embodies might not be the traits that we as a nation want to emulate.”

Co-artistic director Christopher W. White sees the hero as a potential danger to himself and to society: “When we look at a certain type of hero, the soldier or the fireman, we see that the costs of heroism can be quite high.  But there are subtler costs, such as the isolation from others.  And there are societal costs – in looking at the cowboy or frontiersman as a type of American hero, we can see that the individualism and desire for expansion he embodies might not be the traits that we as a nation want to emulate.”