The Tiger’s Bride: Interview with Artistic Director Suzanne Karpinski
“The Tiger’s Bride” is an immersive show at NYC’s the cell which was inspired by the legendary story of “Bluebeard’s Castle” fairy tale. Running from February 14 to March 2, “The Tiger’s Bride” is described as being part theater, part circus, part haunted house, and fully immersive. The show invites the audience members to be guests at Bluebeard’s wedding night and the entire building at the cell has been transformed into Chateau de Rais, aka Bluebeard’s castle. There, guests help his new bride unlock his secrets whilst being entertained by his mysterious staff.
Director, author, and choreographer Suzanne Karpinski is the founder of Theatre Uzume, a project-based company that fosters the development of hybrid theatre and serves as a platform for emerging artists to work collaboratively on the development of multidisciplinary and immersive performances.
Suzanne recently discussed the show and more via an exclusive interview.
Meagan Meehan (MM): How did you get interested in theater and what gave you the idea to get into immersive theater?
Suzanne Karpinski (SK): Theater to me has always meant bringing people together. I was a really socially awkward kid, but when I got up to speak in front of a group of people, it was the most natural thing in the world as the awkwardness would disappear. I found a conversation happening there and an opportunity to connect. This stuck with me and I’ve been making theater ever since. Immersivity and interactivity are the natural extensions of that need we all have to connect and be in the present moment.
MM: How did you come up with the idea for “The Tiger’s Bride”?
SK: The Tiger’s Bride started out as a circus variety show concept in 2019, coming on the heels of a pair of immersive reenactments of famous concerts that Theatre Uzume produced the previous two years. As I began doing other work as a performer on different immersive projects, I started looking for ways to pull the audience closer to the action and the characters in my project. It made sense to present the whole story as a frame around the circus acts bringing everyone into the world Angela Carter created when she wrote “The Bloody Chamber”, the book which inspired the show.
MM: What is it about Bluebeard lore that so appeals to you?
SK: Bluebeard represents an archetype of toxic masculinity that appears in many “princess stories” that we, particularly girls, are brought up with from a young age. I believe we have internalized and normalized these characters to the extent that they affect what young women expect from men in relationships and accept certain treatment often without realizing. I am fascinated by looking at stories that challenge those narratives. In a way, “Bluebeard” is unlike many of those stories. Rather than being a cautionary tale of curiosity ‘killing the cat’, or daring to disobey a husband, it’s more of a warning told from mother to daughter to never accept anything less than substance from a prospective partner.
MM: How did you partner with the cell?
SK: I was originally awarded an artistic residency with the cell in 2022.
MM: How long did it take to come up with all of the details for this show?
SK: Since the beginning of my residency, I continued developing the script and choreography; I even directed and performed two workshops of the show in my basement for 20 people in the spring of 2023. After the workshops, the cell saw what was happening and basically said, “wait, this is going to need more space, more resources,” and offered to expand the residency to provide “The Tiger’s Bride” exclusive access to their entire four-story building, something that they haven’t done before.
MM: How long did it take to transform the space?
SK: For the show in the basement, it took almost a year scouting the around the northeast’s many antique shops and prop houses while doing online research to find all of the materials necessary to create an exotic den that could conceivably be Bluebeard’s lounge, study, and other private spaces on a DIY budget. As far as scaling up to a building the size of the cell, inspiration has come from historical photos of 1920’s New York, as well as architectural digests from the time and interior design catalogs. It has been helpful that art deco and maximalism are having a moment in the popular imagination right now. All in, it has taken almost two years!
MM: What is your favorite part of the show and why?
SK: As a circus artist, my imagination feeds on seeing great circus performers make incredible shapes with their bodies to tell visual stories with their skills. I am excited that our guests will get to meet and interact with these enigmatic characters up close, to be drawn into their world on an intimate level that you would never have access to under a big-top or traditional theater space.
MM: What memorable feedback have you gotten about this show so far?
SK: A funny story: in what I can only surmise was a complete non-sequitur, during the talkback after the workshop someone inquired if our story was alluding to “suspicious deaths” of celebrities such as Chris Cornell and Scott Weiland with regard to Bluebeard. While I’m tickled that their imagination was sparked, the answer is no.
MM: You’re also the founder of Theater Uzume, so what kinds of shows do you seek to create and what kinds of artists do you enjoy working with?
SK: I started Theatre Uzume ten years ago when I was at The New School pursuing an MFA in directing, because my work didn’t fit neatly into any category they were teaching. For my thesis, instead of picking a great playwright or classic play to direct, the faculty allowed me to build a piece entirely from scratch. This is essentially what Theatre Uzume is: Multidisciplinary; Each project regularly features original music, dance, fashion, circus, and so forth. It’s immersive; pieces are regularly site specific and environmental, with participatory elements. I usually seek out artists I want to work with because of their unique skills and expertise, often working with known stories or figures and finding a way to voice through those perspectives. For instance, in The Tiger’s Bride I am featuring elements of “sideshow” to play on our fascination with the grotesque, so I cast Maggie McMuffin, who plays Wolf Alice in the show, because she was once Miss Coney Island and is cast in its renowned sideshow.
MM: What has been the highlight of your career in the theater so far?
SK: I’m hesitant to pick any one thing as a definitive highlight during this stage of my career, but I can recount a very memorable experience when I began taking bigger risks on stage. A playwright friend and colleague cast me in a serial play being produced by my then theater company (shout out to Sacred Fools in LA!) playing a character who visits the dream realm to live-out their nightmares. The result was a 15-minute monologue where my teeth fell out, I fell from the sky, and the coup de grace — my dress literally ripped away from my body while the audience watched stunned as I delivered an “au natural” report about geopolitics in the middle east.
MM: What are your ultimate goals for the future and is there anything else that you would like to mention?
SK: I believe that emergent theater is in a critically vulnerable place post pandemic as spaces and resources disappear every day. The prohibitive cost of making art has destroyed the once diverse and flourishing downtown theater scene, where off-beat and experimental work was in ample supply just a decade ago. Ultimately, I would love to be part of a movement that brings accessible space back to the artists of this city. Running my own space for immersive artists to incubate and present their work would be a dream.
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THE TIGER’S BRIDE runs February 14 — March 2 at Nancy Manocherian’s the cell theatre (338 W. 23rd Street, New York, NY 10011). “The Tiger’s Bride” show runs for 90 minutes and involves standing, walking, and climbing stairs. Tickets are $75 — $95, available at www.thecelltheatre.org.