Kaspar production Thursday–Sunday

The Skidmore Department of Theater will present Kaspar by Peter Handke as its spring 2016 Director's Lab. Aaron Ardisson '16, a theater major, will direct the production, scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, April 28-May 1 in the Black Box Theater.

Inspired by the story of Kaspar Hauser and written by internationally acclaimed and award-winning Austrian playwright Peter Handke, Kaspar dissects the role of language in the human experience, specifically the role of language as torturer. Emerging into society with only a single sentence, Kaspar is tortured by language. Through a series of 16 phrases, speech is deconstructed, rendering language all-powerful. Ultimately, Kaspar is, as Handke writes, "made to speak through speaking."

Director Ardisson says, "As logician and philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein has written, 'The limits of my language are the limits of my world.' The expression of thought is restricted only by the confines of what can be articulated through language. Who is to say that we think in the same language we speak? Peter Handke's Kaspar explores the limits of language as a means of both expression and torture."

Admission to Kaspar is $12, $8 for students and senior citizens. Seating is limited. For reservations, please contact the Skidmore Theater Box Office via email or phone at 518-580-5439, on Facebook or at the Skidmore Theater website.