Demand & Writhe | 2002
1223 Wood Street
Philadelphia Fringe Festival
A duct-taped bodice atop patten-leather stilts erupted from a unsuspecting closet door onto a gothic chessboard set - the entire floor of a reclaimed electroplating workshop, complete with modified machinery turned torture devices, royal platforms and thrones. The audience stood with their backs to the wall while hot wax dripped from steam-pipe candelabras above.
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“The performing arts, specifically Brian Sanders’ Junk performing their acrobatic, sexually charged, and horrific Demand and Writhe in a dim and cavernous garage at 1223 Wood Street – mere yards from where Lynch had lived in the sixties – finally brought me to the ‘Hood on foot for the first time. J. Cooper Robb at Philadelphia Weekly described the performance as, “a sinew-popping and at times spellbinding excursion into the lair of a king who is so debauched he makes Caligula look like a Boy Scout,” judging it, “more impressive than it is coherent,” before ultimately admitting, “its visceral impact is undeniable.” I suspect Lynch would have loved the performance. My amazement at this work brought me back several times during the 2002 Fringe Festival where it was presented. With each successful visit to this venue, my comfort finally began to grow.”