Penny Arcade Brings Her Factory Girl Comedy-Memoir to The Foundry Friday
The downtown New York performance artist and former Warhol Factory regular takes on gentrification and cultural amnesia, with a rock soundtrack.
Friday, November 6, 7:30pm | West Stockbridge, MA | $25, $35, or $45
Penny Arcade performs “Longing Lasts Longer” at The Foundry on Friday night. The show combines stand-up comedy and memoir with a rock-and-roll soundscape that her collaborator of 29 years, Steve Zehentner, mixes live from about 100 song loops. It is a critique of the erasure of history, the rise of nostalgia, and what Arcade calls cultural amnesia, which she says comes from international gentrification, seen through New York City. It has played in 45 cities and won three top festival prizes, the Herald Angel Award and a Scotsman Fringe First at Edinburgh and an Adelaide Fringe award.
Arcade, whose legal name is Susana Ventura, debuted at 17 in John Vaccaro’s Playhouse of the Ridiculous and was a Warhol Factory fixture at 19, appearing in Andy Warhol’s “Women in Revolt.” She has written more than ten full-length shows, including “Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!,” which has played in more than 30 cities. The actress Cynthia Nixon played Arcade in the film An Englishman in New York.
The Foundry, 2 Harris Street, West Stockbridge, MA. Tickets at Eventbrite or 413-232-5222.
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After a decade of writing for RI (along with many other publications and organizations) Jamie took over as editor in 2025. He has a masters in journalism from NYU, a wonderful wife, two kids and a Carolina dog named Zelda.
