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The Arts Intel Report

Spiritus/Virgil's Dance

Dael Orlandersmith in Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance.

Feb 1 – Mar 9, 2024
224 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10014

Actress and poet Dael Orlandersmith’s riff on Dante’s The Divine Comedy has Virgil navigating Manhattan instead of Hell. And he is now a disaffected 20-something Bronx native whose idea of Purgatory is commuting to work in New York City traffic. By middle age, purposeless and death obsessed, Virgil befriends a funeral director and a hospice nurse. Orlandersmith plays all the characters, while her longtime collaborator, Neel Keller, directs. The New York Times called the show “strange, surprising, and somewhat too spare.” Intriguing. —Jensen Davis