Fresh off his Kennedy Center debut with Pulitzer Prize Finalist Kristina Wong, and eight summers after creating the most talked-about, best-reviewed, and cleanest show of the Capital Fringe Festival, Brian Feldman, DC’s 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, & 5th Best Performance Artist*, returns with its inevitable sequel, Dishwasher 2: I Pay You. And this time, YOU are the star.
You go to his home, handwash the dirty dishes in his sink, and cold read a monologue. Are you a better actor or dishwasher? Brian Feldman decides.
Think you’ve got what it takes? Don’t snooze on booking your ticket, as there are only 18 tickets available (one per show), making Dishwasher 2: I Pay You one of the most exclusive tickets in Brian Feldman Projects history. (Watch out, Cleveland Park Listserv!)
With a focus on cleaning up other peoples’ messes, this timely piece is about the challenge of affordable housing in the District, the power gap between renters and property management companies, life on minimum wage, as well as balancing caretaking with financial survival in the 5th most expensive city in the U.S.
“I’ve done a lot of beautifully surreal projects over the course of my performance art career,” said Feldman from his studio apartment in Cleveland Park. “From having dinner on stage with my real-life family — in front of paying audiences — over 50 times, to leaping off of a ladder 366 times over 24 hours, to legally marrying a stranger via a game of spin-the-bottle in support of marriage equality five years before the Obergefell v. Hodges decision. I can’t think of a more appropriately weird way to kick off my 20th anniversary as a performance artist than by welcoming 18 of the most adventurous audience members into my home — which has been described by my mom as a ‘miniature modern art museum,’ and by a DC Department of Buildings Inspector as ‘unlike any apartment he’s seen in his 15 years on the job’ — and having them do the work for me. And the best part? Unlike what I face as an artist living in DC, there’s no financial risk involved to those quick enough to book their ticket. It’s my first project with a 100% money-back guarantee! See: Full title of show.”
*Washington City Paper Best of DC 2023: 3rd Place, 2022: 5th Place, 2021: 4th Place, 2019: 2nd Place, 2018: 1st Place, 2015: 3rd Place, 2013: 3rd Place, 2012: 3rd Place
WHAT: Dishwasher 2: I Pay You
WHO: Created by Brian Feldman & Performed by You
WHEN:
6:00 PM Weeknights
September 1 – 29, 2023
Except September 8, 15 & 25
RUN TIME: ~1 hour
WHERE: The Kitchen (Brian Feldman’s Studio Apartment)
Cleveland Park / Ward 3 / Washington, DC
Exact address provided to ticket buyers.
(Note: Venue is not wheelchair accessible and requires going up and down 17 steps.)
PUBLIC TRANSIT:
Metrorail: Cleveland Park (Red Line)
Metrobus: H2, H4, L2
Circulator: Woodley Park – Adams Morgan – McPherson Square
Capital Bikeshare: Connecticut Ave & Macomb St NW / Cleveland Park
TICKETS: $17.00 (DC’s Minimum Wage and Living Wage)
Only 18 tickets available (one per show)
Tickets on sale at BrianFeldman.com
ABOUT BRIAN FELDMAN PROJECTS:
Brian Feldman [he/him/his] is an award-winning performance artist and actor. The recipient of three Arts and Humanities Fellowships in Theatre (2017, 2018, 2021) and a Projects, Events, and Festivals grant (2019) from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, a 2011 State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship (Interdisciplinary), and three grant awards from United Arts of Central Florida (2008, 2011, 2015), he has also been named Best Performance Artist by Orlando Weekly (2008, 2009) and Washington City Paper (2018). He lives in Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, where he has presented work in all 8 Wards and 30 DC neighborhoods. As the news site DCist noted, “In a city that has an advocacy group exploring how to ‘make D.C. weird’ – and is still struggling – Brian Feldman is a shining beacon of eccentricity.” His work has been featured on movie screens, television, radio, in print, and online, earning critical comparisons to the likes of Marina Abramović, David Blaine, Chris Burden, John Cage, Christo, Marcel Duchamp, Tehching Hsieh, Andy Kaufman, and Ron Howard. Since August 2003, he has presented 1,000+ performances of 140+ projects at 175+ venues and festivals in cities worldwide via Brian Feldman Projects, one of the world’s premier presenters of experimental time-based art, celebrating 20 years in 2023.
SEE ALSO: A wonderfully manic ‘#txtshow’ from performance artist Brian Feldman (review by Amy Kotkin, August 3, 2020)
2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘Dishwasher’ (by Eames Armstrong, July 10, 2015)
