***
The King is dead. Long live the King's body. Dissected by the surgeon's scalpel, vital body parts of the monarch will be preserved in caskets and reliquaries all over Europe. Staged by the British company, The Wrestling School, Howard Barker's post-humanist play toys with ideas about the world and the flesh, the body politic and the limits of science, through the chilling narrative of a master anatomist (William Chubb) who's ensnared by the living flesh of the Queen (Victoria Wicks) and her son (Ian Pepperell).
Tomas Leipzig's glitteringly clinical, monochrome stage design creates an airless chamber for their grapplings, directed by the author with detached precision. But these ideas cry out for more flesh, just as an audience hopes for a theatrical experience that's not targeted solely at the cerebral cortex.
Until Saturday, 8 p.m.
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