Erik Sanko is a bass player from New York who played in The Lounge Lizards and worked with a variety of musicians including Marc Ribot, John Cale, Yoko Ono, Jim Carroll, They Might Be Giants and Danny Elfman.
Eric was a member of the Gavin Friday band in the 90′s and played on Gavin’s 2nd solo album “Adam ‘n’ Eve”.
Sanko is also a visual artist who creates marionettes. In 2006 he created The Fortune Teller, a marionette play in which seven strangers’ twisted tales are brought to life to tell an eerily comic story of fate and fortune. Gavin Friday recorded the narration of the play.
The Fortune Teller, the acclaimed creation of New York City puppet maker Erik Sanko and designer Jessica Grindstaff, returns to the stage by popular demand at the Here Theater in New York City, October 28th–December 4th, 2010. (Click here for tickets)
The Fortune Teller features a grotesque array of 15 artfully handcrafted figures in a dark comic tale unfolding in a fantastic Victorian world. Seven characters representing the seven deadly sins convene at a dead millionaire’s estate to claim their inheritance as determined by a fortune teller. One by one, each is delivered what they have coming to them, but perhaps not what they are expecting—a brutal, but suitable, demise. Featuring the gravelly, recorded narration of Irish vocalist Gavin Friday and an eerie score by Sanko and Grammy-winning film composer Danny Elfman, this sinister puppet theater spectacle is a perverse, but gleeful morality tale for grown-ups.
Reviews
“For those souls with a taste for the elegantly macabre, attendance is highly advised. To miss it – now that would be a sin”
-The Village Voice”
“A morality fable for grown-ups, evoking the familiar idioms of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton in a style you might term Victorian ghastly… the set, a regular wunderkammer, keeps opening up to reveal new sets and images, little Victorian dioramas… macabre and engaging.”
- The New York Times
“The narration, by Gavin Friday, is nearly flawless and pre-recorded along with the music, narration, and well-chosen sound effects. The lighting design by Andrew Hill is clear and unobtrusive, supporting the action quite well.”
“This perfect pre-Halloween morality play, with a twist ending worthy of The Twilight Zone, features the voice of Gavin Friday, who reads Sanko’s words with eerie power.”
Praise for Erik Sanko’s The Fortune Teller from New York-centric blog ‘Gothamist‘:
“The narration, intoned by a gravelly-voiced Gavin Friday, immediately mesmerizes. And Elfman invokes the perfect mood with a score that is as creaky and haunting as you’d expect.”
The Fortune Teller continues through December 22nd. Get your tickets here.
“Gavin Friday as Silas provides deliciously creepy narration with his sinewy, theatrical linguistics, while the quirky, haunting music by Elfman lends a wonderful eerieness reminiscent of his film work.” Broadwayworld.com
“Gavin Friday’s superb narration rival’s Boris Karloff’s narration of How the Grinch Stole Christmas in the Narration Hall of Fame.” Off-off Broadway
Gavin has recorded narration for The Fortune Teller, a puppet show by Erik Sanko, with music composed by Erik Sanko and Danny Elfman.
Erik Sanko is a musician, artist and marionette-maker living in New York City. He has worked with Gavin before as a member of his backing band.
The Fortune Teller opens at the HERE Theatre in New York on October 19th and will play through the 31st.
The Fortune Teller reveals a world of curiosities as seven unusual characters are invited to the estate of a late millionaire industrialist and informed they’ve been included in his will.
The Fortune Teller
Created and Directed by Erik Sanko
Original Music composed by Danny Elfman and Erik Sanko
October 19-31, 2006 | Tickets ($20.00)
