The Fall

Park Avenue Armory, 2015
JACK, 2016
The Public Theater, Under The Radar, 2017
CUNY, 2018
ATHE Theater Conference, Westin Hotel, Boston, 2018
Yale University, 2019

projection screen showing opening of Peter Whitehead's The Fall

Cyrus Moshrefi and Kelsea Martin in front of projection of Whitehead's The Fall

Cyrus Moshrefi discusses the image of the fallen student from Whitehead's The Fall

The Fall is a lecture performance based on Peter Whitehead’s 1969 cult film, The Fall, which documents the social and political turmoil of Vietnam-era USA. The piece uses live performance and audio recordings of those involved in — and affected by — the film. The Fall explores the power of art to change society, the ways in which radical politics are transformed through memory, documentation, and the exigencies of history.

Written and conceived by Sister Sylvester
Performed and devised by Cyrus Moshrefi, Kelsea Martin
Sound Design by Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste
Dramaturgy Jeremy M. Barker
With an appearance by: Parivash Moshrefi

Selected Press:

“This always intriguing company continues to create unexpected, challenging work that approaches story and ideas from multiple angles and generates a thrill with unusual juxtapositions. Here they address Peter Whitehead’s 1969 film The Fall, about the student occupation at Columbia University, and dig into protest, action, artists, and change, with some exploration of misogyny, global politics, and cinema as well. Oh, and there is a real live chicken.”
- American Theater Magazine

“The piece is incredibly sly and seductive in the way it flows through thresholds between realities, identities and generic divides. It is both a non-fiction lecture and a theatrical spectacle, simultaneously embodying and commenting on the nature of the two forms. It’s nonchalantly educational, deeply entertaining, and, in part because of the constant acknowledgement of its own artifice, highly authentic.”
- Culturebot

Interview in Huffington Post:

“Creating surprising images can change our understanding of an object, a situation, or a relationship of power. To turn anger into something creative is an incredibly powerful act. The line that connects image and action, though - rather than image and thought, or image and reflection - is more complicated.”