DIVINE JUSTICE

Performance
- The Keith Haring Theatre
- June 11 | 8pm
In her 24-hour durational performance, DIVINE JUSTICE, the poet, playwright and astrologer, Ariana Reines reimagines the courtroom as a space in which the feminine body is the presumed authority. Disillusioned by failures of the American justice system, the artist asks what would happen if the planet Venus actually presided over the American Judiciary, as it does over Justice in the Zodiac. How would a justice system that truly answers to Venus, the planet of love, be structured, how would wrongdoing be corrected, how would damage be addressed, how would victims be made whole? In DIVINE JUSTICE, Reines collapses trial and sentence, judge and jury, into light and sound– a single summer day of Venus tested, and time served.
DIVINE JUSTICE is a courtroom drama in which a small choir constitutes judge and jury, to which the trial of Joan of Arc & the crimes of Medea serve as touchstones. Inspired by the aesthetics of Eastern Orthodox rather than Protestant Christian devotional space and built around the dialogue structures of restorative justice and musical & activist modes of call-and-response, DIVINE JUSTICE is an experiment in transforming disputants through the power of sound and the penetrating gaze of sincere presence. What if sound was correction? How would punishment function, if it wasn’t measured in time served, and how would change be enacted, if not on threat of death?
*Please note: This is a durational performance Refreshments will be provided and there will be meal breaks, but please also feel welcome to being along the snacks that make you and your loved ones happy.
We also recommend:
-that you dress comfortably, whatever that means for you
-pillows/snuggly stuff for resting & chilling on
-yer toiletry bag
-contact lenses, vitamins, meds, whatever your situation requires