The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker: From Nightstand to Spotlight
“Unadaptable into a theatrical medium,” was James Leech’s first response after reading the book. It's easy to understand why; the novel’s lack, if not complete absence of coherent narrative — instead composed in a pastiche manner (Kathy Acker-esque, if one likes) into anxious episodes of a larger filthy fantasy — doesn't lend itself to the stage naturally, let alone sounds like a task anybody would take on voluntarily. But forbidden fruit always has the luscious juice. Thus, Foster-Soltis proposed the idea.
Skelley and Foster-Soltis met at the launch party in LA, discovered mutual obsessions, vibed, and went for it.
"When I first read the The Complete Fear of Kathy Acker, I found myself deeply resonating with Jack’s brutal self-mocking/self-victimizing hatred toward himself and toward what he terms the invasive capitalistic “CLOP” corrupting language and a potential self-fulfilling sense of sacredness," said Foster-Soltis, as opposed to the novel's dominant themes of sex and eroticism. These anxieties remain relatable, whether they play out in the 80s or mid-2020s, “especially for neurotic young artists clomping around the streets of LA,” she continued. I’d personally make that true for every metropolitan.
The adaptation from novel to play is centered around where the playwright herself fit in Skelley’s narrative as a “young female writer,” while simultaneously seeking to avoid that objectifying pigeon hole. Prior to this very play, Foster-Soltis has consciously avoided or removed her own “identity” from discussion of these characteristics. Yet, for this production, she found the answer when studying the book within her own circles, largely made up of young female artists and writers, and by turning to Jack as one of her muses.
“The gender switch of ‘me’ played by a woman actor freaks me out ... .in a good way!” said Skelley once he got the mic. Foster-Soltis takes liberties amongst FOKA’s themes and passages, thus the script is her “daring and beautiful baby,” touching upon the playwright’s own indulgent voyeurism in contemporary socio-cultural dynamics. “Hopefully, in a way that’s both investigative and comedic,” she says.
The play will hinge upon the cross-generational relevance between the novel’s significance back then and its cosmic chaos and characterization of today; its old but ever-present universal urgency. When asked about what feeling they wish to leave the audience with, James Leech comfortably brushed it off by saying how “trying to premeditated the consensus of an audience is ultimately a fool’s errand.” Skelley and Foster-Soltis hope to leave you with “an over-stimulating honesty.”
Do come prepared for an existential migraine, the very best kind.
