‘Cancellation Island’: John Cameron Mitchell Sets Scripted Podcast With Topic Studios
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EXCLUSIVE: John Cameron Mitchell, creator of the Hedwig and the Angry Inch musical, believes “in the future, we will all be canceled for fifteen minutes” and he’s turning this idea into a podcast.
Mitchell has teamed up with Michael Cavadias, who has acted in film Wonder Boys and Hulu series Difficult People, as well as Topic Studios to create Cancellation Island.
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The scripted audio series will satirize a rehab for canceled people and will be recorded in front of a live studio audience this spring.
It is Mitchell’s second audio project for Topic Studios, which was also behind musical series Anthem: Homunculus starring Glenn Close, Patti Lupone, Cynthia Erivo, Laurie Anderson, Nakhane, Denis O’Hare and Maron Cotillard.
Cancellation Island, an eight-part series, will follow wellness hack turned guru Karen and her specially curated staff of Gen Z’ers with the canceled attendees put through their paces so they can crawl back into society’s good graces. Therapies including “Harass the Harasser,” “Bad Touch Football,” and “Anti-Racism Spin Class” and mandatory ayahuasca ceremonies start to go awry. Then people start to disappear. Are they escaping the island, or are they being picked off by a mysterious player? And what does K-Anon, the new conspiracy theory about the lizard people among us, have to do with it all?
Casting will be revealed soon.
“Cancellation Island is a Dr. Strangelove-ian satire about a super-connected society dying of loneliness,” said John Cameron Mitchell. “It begins with a zany left-wing critique of how cancel culture has saturated U.S. society from all political angles but expands to remind us that cancellation is just one symptom of a world obsessed with narratives of identity and conspiracy theory to deal with our existential panic about climate change and late-capitalist collapse.”
He added, “Michael and I grew up in the same downtown 90’s queer performance/punk scene that created Hedwig and Claywoman are thrilled to be finally working together to make Cancellation Island with an exceptional team and my old buddies at Topic Studios.”
“We love producing the wonderful, unexpected, and thought-provoking musings of John at Topic Studios and are excited to be working with him again, along with Michael, to bring Cancellation Island to the world,” added Christy Gressman, VP and Executive Producer Podcasts for Topic Studios. “We’re also looking forward to producing this in a unique way — recorded in front of a live studio audience, which will add to the excitement and unpredictability of what happens on the island.”
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