You are invited to a private screening of Michael Montenegro’s first film Apparaticus at FACETS on February 24th at 7pm. Doors will open at 6:30 for appetizers and a multi-media lobby display.

How long would you last in solitary confinement?

Apparaticus, loosely based on Franz Kafka’s short story “The Penal Colony,” is a darkly satirical look at the prison industrial complex. As we voyage into the unconscious mind of a man imprisoned and isolated, we meet diabolical clowns–those bureaucrats who maintain the carceral state–engaging in a dance of “the banality of evil.” Right now, 75,500 individuals are in solitary confinement in the US (with as many as 300,000 during COVID-19 lockdowns): inspired by firsthand accounts, Apparaticus allows us to experience–at a surreal, dreamlike slant–the psychodrama of confinement and the grotesque farce of authority.  

Chicago puppet and mask-maker Michael Montenegro began collaborating with Theatre Y during the pandemic, when the only available medium was film. Montenegro took these new tools into his sculptor’s hands and wrought something very much his own. As dissonant and disorienting realities unfold over 90 minutes, Montenegro rattles our cages, startles our senses, and makes us stare down this antiquated tool designed to crush the human spirit. Are we capable of reconsidering our carceral practices and expanding our moral imagination?