The Wooster Group is excited to bring NORTH ATLANTIC, a new incarnation of our classic piece, to New York City starting March 10th through April 25th. Get your tickets while they last!

"It's a quintessentially American musical as only the Wooster Group could conceive it." ... "Mr. Strahs, Ms. LeCompte and the Wooster ensemble demonstrate perfect pitch," writes Ben Brantley in The New York Times. "Watching NORTH ATLANTIC can feel like channel-surfing, drunk, through a military-themed cinematic menu."

"Terrific fun" ... "NORTH ATLANTIC is a dirty, clever, exhilarating thrill ride as only The Wooster Group could devise," says David Cote in his Time Out New York review. "This paranoid, profane, goofy mélange of noir tough talk, screwball wisecracking and frat-house ribaldry delivers on all counts."

"Spellbinding," declares John Del Signore in Gothamist. "The phenomenal ensemble...slides, rappels, dances, defies gravity, and somehow maintains a breathtaking balance."



Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and featuring Steve Cuiffo, Ari Fliakos, Koosil-ja, Paul Lazar, Frances McDormand, Zachary Oberzan, Scott Shepherd, Jenny Seastone Stern, Maura Tierney, and Kate Valk, the piece will be presented at the new Jerome Robbins Theater at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC) at 450 West 37th Street.

NORTH ATLANTIC in New York

The Wooster Group launches its three-year residency at the Baryshnikov Arts Center with NORTH ATLANTIC at the brand new Jerome Robbins Theater.

Written for the Group in 1982 by James Strahs, NORTH ATLANTIC is a satirical romp -- sometimes musical -- through our military imagination. Set on an aircraft carrier during the waning years of the Cold War, the piece has served as a touchstone for the Group. We've performed numerous iterations of it since its first showings at The Performing Garage in 1983, mostly recently a critically acclaimed run at REDCAT in Los Angeles that ended on February 21st:

A "masterful demonstration of the troupe's house style" ... "concentrated theatrical audacity...staged with the multilayered precision that company founder and artistic director Elizabeth LeCompte is renowned for." --LA Times

"Experimental theater doesn't come any livelier or more entertaining than the Wooster Group's NORTH ATLANTIC" ... "the experience is akin to dropping peyote buttons during a WWII movie marathon." --Variety

"North Atlantic is essential theater. It is pure. And it is unique. And, when you get home, you'll know that you lived through a landmine exploding." --Stage and Cinema

NORTH ATLANTIC in rehearsal at The Performing Garage:

Text: James Strahs
Director: Elizabeth LeCompte

Cast: Steve Cuiffo, Ari Fliakos, Koosil-ja, Paul Lazar, Frances McDormand, Zachary Oberzan, Scott Shepherd, Jenny Seastone Stern, Maura Tierney, and Kate Valk

Set: Jim Clayburgh
Lighting: Jennifer Tipton
Sound: Bruce Odland, Matt Schloss, Omar Zubair
Production Team: Geoff Abbas, Enver Chakartash, Aron Deyo, Teresa Hartmann, Daniel Jackson, Bozkurt Karasu, Tony Mulanix, Andrew Schneider, Jeff Sugg
Sound Score: Bob Cardelli, Martin R. Desjardins, Donald DiNicola, Eddy Dixon, Bruce Odland
Understudies: Eleanor Hutchins, Andrew Schneider

Thanks: Ruud van den Akker, Jo Andres, Bill Ballou, Dominique Bousquet, James Dawson, Jim Findlay, Mark Huang, Arto Lindsay, Suzzy Roche, Rob Reese

We've revisited NORTH ATLANTIC a number of times since it was first developed in 1983. It was made in collaboration with James Strahs and members of the Globe Theater Company in Eindhoven, Holland. This first draft included eight Dutch performers and Wooster Group performers Nancy Reilly, Michael Stumm, Kate Valk, and Ron Vawter.

A revised version of NORTH ATLANTIC was presented at The Performing Garage, New York City (1984) and the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C., (1985) with Wooster Group performers Willem Dafoe, Spalding Gray, Anna Köhler, Reilly, Peyton Smith, Stumm, Valk, Vawter, and Jeff Webster.

In 1999, the Group brought back North Atlantic with veterans Dafoe and Valk alongside Steve Buscemi, C.L. Coleman, Steve Cuiffo, Roy Faudree, Jim Fletcher, Ari Fliakos, Koosil-ja, Emily Cass McDonnell, Helen Pickett, Scott Shepherd, Pete Simpson, and Michelle Stern. This version was performed at the Garage and toured Europe and the United States.

James Strahs also collaborated with The Wooster Group on POINT JUDITH (1979) and FRANK DELL'S THE TEMPTATION OF ST. ANTONY (1987).

"Float one? Is that a technique? How abstract."