Can't Take Johnny to the Funeral explores bliss and terror in the modern world. The piece begins with the premise that militarized society destroys its children by making them the inheritors of real and imagined violence. The audience sits around a 19-foot square, a small-scale boxing ring. The performers execute exhausting movement drawn from popular culture, personal experience, and observations of sports and machines. Domestic labor becomes the forced work of the prisoner in the image of men and women sewing. Saint Sebastian is created as the result of a medical operation. Spoken texts relate personal experiences, suggest a domestic wartime scene, and depict an investigation of infanticide. Can't Take Johnny to the Funeral poetically explores the destruction of innocence and the possibility of redemption.

Created by: Karen Christopher, Matthew Goulish, Lin Hixson (director), Greg McCain, Timothy McCain and Joan Dickinson.

Commissioned by: The National Performance Network (USA).

Performance History