The Society of Societies

Steirischer Herbst, Graz, Austria, 2023 Playground Festival, STUK, Leuven, 2025

Performance 60/90 min.

Concept & Direction: Michael Portnoy Directors of Behavior: Moss Beynon Juckes, Kevin Bonono, Marcus McKenzie, Michael Portnoy, Alex Tatarsky, Kathleen Taylor Harpsichord: Anna Kiskachi Sound design: Antonia Manhartsberger Costume and stage design: Katharina Heistinger

Commissioned and produced by steirischer herbst ʼ23

Directors of Behavior in Playground Festival: Moss Beynon Juckes, Nnamdi Nwagwu, Michael Portnoy, Kathleen Taylor

A salon/nightclub meets laboratory for behavioral experimentation. Each of the 125 participants assumes the role of a different 'director', tasked with adjusting and challenging habitual patterns of behavior and interaction. Some directors distort language and sense; others recalibrate behavior, mood, and movement, or engineer speculative worlds and theatrical frames for interaction. The instructions trigger verbal high-wire acts, untamed problem-making, and mutant etiquettes—fast-forming societies where rigorous play and higher forms of irrationality spark radical intimacy and transformation.