Everything You Need To Know This Week On New York's Art Scene

8. Spartacus Chetwynd: The Lion Tamer The Lion Tamer is a performance made specifically for an audience aware of the permeable possibilities within the live moment; in this piece, reality and fantasy will reach each other for a short, organized, designated encounter. Spartacus Chetwynd is influenced by the 1983 film, The Dresser, which tells the story of an aging actor's personal assistant who struggles to keep his charge's life together, and by I'm No Angel (1933), in which Mae West plays Tira, a lion-tamer who tames the beasts on stage and the 'society swells' offstage. For Performa 11, Chetwynd attempts to tame the crazed egos of the very participants in her own piece, where an attempt to emulate the lion-taming act provides a cathartic role-play for the divas within the performance troupe. Details: November 2, 7:00 pm — 8:00 pm, 8:00 pm — 9:00 pm November 3, 7:00 pm — 8:00 pm, 8:00 pm — 9:00 pm New Museum 235 Bowery New York, NY 10002 [More info]