In partnership with the NC Stage Company, BMCM+AC presents Erik Satie’s lyric comedy, The Ruse of Medusa (Le Piège de Méduse) considered to be the first example of surrealist drama. The one-act play in seven scenes is punctuated by dances in between each scene. Performed in English for the first time at Black Mountain College in 1948, the play had an all-star cast including Buckminster Fuller, Merce Cunningham, and Elaine de Kooning. John Cage performed the music and Willem de Kooning designed the stage sets. Along with being the first Surrealist drama, this is the first composition requiring the use of a prepared piano, as Satie inserted paper between the hammers and strings of the instrument to create a particular timbral effect.