In The First Bad Man, four characters join a book club – their first novel being Miranda July’s bestselling classic The First Bad Man. Every week for a year, they keep coming back to it, having constantly encountered characters from the novel.
This performance explores the balance between the personal satisfaction of putting yourself out there and the risk of showing your true self. More than just a staging of scenes from the book or a literary dissection, The First Bad Man is an immersive, comedic, and occasionally combative look at the overlap between the play’s characters and its inspirations.
Reading July’s The First Bad Man is not a prerequisite before joining this performative book club, but each person booking tickets for the performance receives a copy of the novel, for good measure.
From Pan Pan Theatre, presented as part of RISING this June. Tickets on sale now: bbit.ly/4deiJ4B
