Taylor Mac does not set out to bite the hand that feeds in a new play satirizing cultural philanthropy. The MacArthur “genius grant” recipient claims to be “just trying to get some lipstick on it."
Set at a not-for-profit dance company’s gala, "Prosperous Fools" invites questions about the moral value of philanthropy in a society denounced by the comedy as “feudal.” A boorish patron goes mad trying vainly to wield his lacking creative capital and thus confirms the choreographer's fears of selling out to a sleazy oligarch who represents everything his art opposes. The show, written by Mac and directed by Darko Tresnjak, runs through June 29 at Brooklyn's Polonsky Shakespeare Center.
