NEW FROM ARTHUR: PARADISE NOW: THE LIVING THEATRE IN AMERIKA DVD

LIMITED EDITION OF 1,000
UPDATE MARCH 26, 2013: Remaining stock of this dvd available from Secretly Canadian distribution. Click here for ordering info.

Film Still by Marty Topp

Life, revolution and theater are three words for the same thing:
an unconditional NO to the present society.” – Julian Beck

“Paradise Now … more relevant now because we’re closer
to now than we ever have been.” – Hanon Reznikov

In collaboration with The Living Theatre, The Ira Cohen Akashic Project and Saturnalia Media Rites of the Dreamweapon, Arthur Magazine proudly presents “PARADISE NOW: The Living Theatre in Amerika,” a DVD featuring rare, never-before-distributed films and a plethora of revolutionary multimedia documents from The Living Theatre’s historic and influential ’68-’69 American tour. An edition of 1,000 copies of this DVD will be available from December 1, 2007. This staggering package, which retails for $29.95, features:

NEVER BEFORE RELEASED FILMS

– “PARADISE NOW: THE LIVING THEATRE IN AMERIKA” (1969) a harrowing, gorgeous, in-your-face-and-mind 45-minute black-and-white film by Marty Topp, produced by Ira Cohen for Universal Mutant. “Marty Topp’s beautiful film of ‘Paradise Now’ reveals how the theories of revolutionary change and the experience of sexual liberation are not separate paths to the beautiful nonviolent anarchist revolution. Practiced together they are a single thrust, encompassing both political action and sensual joy, leading to the dreamed-of terrestrial paradise.” — Judith Malina (The Living Theatre)
– “EMERGENCY: THE LIVING THEATRE” (1968) a 32-minute color film by Gwen Brown, featuring precious footage of Living Theatre productions “Mysteries” and smaller pieces, “Paradise Now” and “Frankenstein.” “The fusion of Brown’s freewheeling direct cinema and the Living Theatre’s performance for revolutionary change (amidst the heydays of both) unite as a dynamic concoction of the era, yielding for the viewer a shifting terrain of both critical insight and ecstatic zeal, not as a vacant nostalgia for a pre-commodified radicality, but as tactical inspiration for future days.” – Andrew Wilson (Artist’s Access Television)
– “PARADISE NOW: THE PERMANENT REVOLUTION” (2007) a new 18-minute film by Will Swofford and Georg Gatsas. On August 23, 2007, The Living Theatre restaged “Paradise Now” in New York’s Union Square to mark the 80th anniversary of the 500,000-strong street protest over the deaths of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti–Italian immigrants unjustly executed for their anarchist political convictions. COMMEMORATIVE PRINTED MATTER

– DOUBLE SIDED 14 x 19 POSTER featuring THE MAP OF PARADISE as drawn by Julian Beck and BAM ODYSESSY a stunning montage of photographs by Don Snyder from Paradise Now at Brooklyn Academy of Music- MAGAZINE BOOKLET including texts by Antonin Artaud, Allan Graubard, Julian Beck, Judith Malina, Hanon Reznikov, Ira Cohen, Don Snyder, photographs, stills from the films, ephemera and much more

ADDITIONAL SPECIAL FEATURES

– INTERVIEWS with directors Julian Beck*, Judith Malina, Hanon Reznikov, company member Steve Ben Israel, and producer Ira Cohen
*(courtesy of Mark Ari)– THE SPINNING WHEEL by Steve Ben Israel, soundtrack to EMERGENCY sourced from agit-prop radio broadcasts

– LOVE & POLITICS, an introduction to the themes and personalities at the heart of the work of The Living Theatre, including scenes from The Living Theatre repertory and poems and texts by Malina, Reznikov, Julian Beck. Filmed at The Pink Pony NYC and LaMama ETC with an introduction by Ira Cohen

– FULL THEATRICAL SCRIPT SLIDESHOW of Paradise Now, A Collective Creation of The Living Theatre, as written down by Julian Beck and Judith Malina documenting more than 100 performances of the event

– MYSTIC FIRE GALLERY of excerpts from Living Theatre films including Sheldon Rochlin’s watershed documentary, Signal Through the Flames

– AKASHIC VIDEO GALLERY of excerpts from current and forthcoming Arthur DVD releases

WHAT IS PARADISE NOW?

In 1968 The Living Theatre, led by Julian Beck and Judith Malina, triumphantly returned to America from years of self-imposed exile in Europe with their theatrical breakthrough Paradise Now. The play introduces the practice of collective creation, dissolving the boundaries of human interactions and forging a harmony between the actors and audience. Of this process, Julian Beck writes, “Collective creation is the secret weapon of the people… This play is a voyage from the many to the one and from the one to the many. It’s a spiritual voyage and a political voyage, a voyage for the actors and the spectators. The play is a vertical ascent toward permanent revolution, leading to revolutionary action here and now. The revolution of which the play speaks is the beautiful, non-violent, anarchist revolution. The purpose of the play is to lead to a state of being in which non-violent revolutionary action is possible.The result of this shared voyage is the spontaneous creation of a temporary anarchist collective- free from the enslavements of war, violence, the State, money and the self.

CRITICAL PRAISE FOR MARTY TOPP’S PARADISE NOW

“Paradise Now is possibly The Living Theatre’s greatest achievement … unsurpassable!” — Ira Cohen”This past spring, in a group art show at New York’s Swiss Institute, an old black-and-white television played a grainy print of bodies writhing to the tune of distant drumming. ‘As long as you have people working for money and not love, there will be violence,’ intoned a tall, angular man on the screen. The bodies- women in scant bikinis and men in what looked like loincloths-piled together in an orgiastic tribal dance, some simulating (or perhaps actually having) sex as the voice continued: ‘Psycho-sexual repression is impeding the revolution.’ What looked like an underworld-of the 1960’s counter-cultural variety, in this case- is the Living Theatre’s Paradise Now, as documented in the 1969 Ira Cohen-produced film Paradise Now: The Living Theatre in Amerika … soon to be released on DVD from Arthur Magazine.” — CAN THEATER STAGE A REVOLUTION? – Traci Parks, Fall ’07 Preview, V MAGAZINE

“Joyous, brutal, exploding with the kinetic energies of psychic catharsis… Marty Topp’s PARADISE NOW: The Living Theatre in Amerika has captured the essence of this extraordinary theatrical experiment. It is unquestionably one of the finest artistic documentaries to come out of the United States cinema. It’s heartfelt sincerity should be sheer inspiration to the many young people throughout the country who are struggling to make meaningful and influential work. It is the reverberation of a crucially important message that must not be neglected, for the consequences are too terrible to endure. Marty Topp’s achievement is not just in the making of a great film, but in making us remember again, Paradise as a reality.” – PARADISE ON FILM – Don Snyder, July 1970, East Village Other

“Like an astonishing portion of the country’s popular music, the spectacles of The Living Theater proved to be in content and form outside the social system- not structured by it nor, except as outlet, implementing it: liberated territory.” — Revolution at the Brooklyn Academy – Stefan Brecht, The Drama Review number 43: Spring 1969, The Living Theater Issue

MORE ABOUT THE LIVING THEATRE

Founded in 1947, The Living Theatre has staged more than 80 productions performed in eight languages in 25 countries on four continents – a unique body of work. Visit their new space on Clinton St. in NYC – more info: www.livingtheatre.org