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, D.C.’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 the day they go on sale (August 21st), 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 US.
“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 D.C. 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 D.C., there’s no financial risk involved to those quick enough to book their ticket the day they go on sale. It’s my first project with a 100% money-back guarantee! See: Full title of show.”
*Washington City Paper Best of D.C. 2023: 3rd Place, 2022: 5th Place, 2021: 4th Place, 2019: 2nd Place, 2018: 1st Place, 2015: 3rd Place, 2013: 3rd Place, 2012: 3rd Place
