Free at the Kimmel
Shut Your Wormhole
PIFA 2013
Tribe of Fools
Commonwealth PlazaIf you had a time machine where would you go? Once you were there, could you return to the present? What if you died while in the past? What if you caused an accident that killed your parents? Could you go back further in time to stop yourself from accidentally killing your parents? What if you found out that your trip to the past indirectly caused Jean-Claude Van Dam to become president? Shut Your Wormhole is a comic romp into the ethics and paradoxes of time travel.
Scarlet, a scientist at UPenn has invented the first time machine by manipulating wormholes -- microscopic tears in the space-time continuum. Within moments of her first successful test she is visited by Karen, a woman from 2062 sent back on a political mission to take control of the zero-hour -- the hour the first time machine is operational -- in an attempt to control the political landscape of the future. But just as Scarlet is about to decide whether or not to assist Karen, the two are visited by travelers from even further in the future, each of them trying to thwart their predecessors.
Using song, dance, and slapstick, Tribe of Fools (Heavy Metal Dance Fag, Dracula, Armageddon at the Mushroom Village) create a fast-paced, five-part serial that comically explores the paradoxes that we often overlook when we think about time travel and the ethics that inevitably come along with the technology to change history.
This event is part of PIFA 2013. Visit PIFA.org for a complete listing of events.
All artists and programs subject to change.