A philosophical double bill at NACL

HIGHLAND LAKE, NY — The North American Cultural Laboratory (NACL) provides food for thought this weekend with a double bill of “Turkish Delightenment,” with Brett Keyser of Philadelphia, PA, and “The Starry Messenger,” a one-man performance created by Donald Kitt, ex Primus actor now residing in Italy.

“Turkish Delightenment,” commissioned by the American Philosophical Society, will be presented on Friday, August 4 at 8:00 p.m. Over an illuminated chess-board salvaged from 2019 sits an austere Turkomaton (a simulated human being made in Turkmenistan).

The Turkomaton plays chess with audience members in order to gain for itself a moral compass. At the same time, it tries to understand what went wrong with the original Age of Enlightenment, considering that many of the era’s grand goals for the future of mankind have yet to be realized. This sci-fi collapsing of the time continuum provides a forum for probing where we’ve been and where wešre headed

Saturday’s offering, also performed at 8:00 p.m., the U.S. premiere of “The Starry Messenger,” is an exploration of the state of human nature and the things we do, again and again, and features text by Annie Dillard, Gallileo Gallilei and Samuel Beckett. The show was first presented at the Odin Teatret, where Kitt has been a collaborator for several years.

For more information visit nacl.org or call 845/557-0694.