Pussy, King of the Pirates
Support the Show
Join our rebellious crew! Your support is the fuel for our punk operetta. We are bringing the adventure to the CAP UCLA Nimoy Theater on January 8th & 9th, 2027. Every tax-deductable contribution helps us keep this production alive. Special thanks to the Dress in Purple Grant/ New York Fund for the Arts, and Cap UCLA. Donations are accepted by our Fiscal Sponsor, the Performance Art Museum, a 501(c)(3).
a THEATRICAL PUNK spectacle
written by kathy ACKER and the Mekons
featuring
kathleen hanna, adele bertei, alice bag, and anna joy springer
JANUARY 8th and 9th, 2027
CAP UCLA NIMOY THEATRE
(JANUARY 9TH IS SOLD OUT!)
Kathleen Hanna
Adele
Bertei
Adele Bertei is an American singer, writer, artist, and director. An original member of the Contortions, she was Brian Eno's assistant, duringnthe recordingn of the seminal No New York LP. She later founded the Bloods, the first openly queer all-women band, starred in Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames, and had a wide-ranging career writing and recording for artists including Thomas Dolby, Tears for Fear, Culture Club, and Whitney Houston. Her most recent books include Universal Mother, Sinéad O'Connor (2025), and No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene (2026).
Alice
Bag
Anna Joy Springer
When dreaming of escape isn't enough,
a crew of outcast girls become pirates
to claim the freedom society won't give them—
rewriting the rules of power, gender and desire
with every mutinous act.
Pussy, King of the Pirates
Pussy, King of the Pirates is collaboration between Kathy Acker and the No Wave post-punk band The Mekons, released in 1996 as both a novel and an album. The story follows a group of girls who dream of a buried treasure, becoming pirates as an escape from oppressive social structures and conventional femininity. The musical has not been performed since Acker's death in 1997. It was her last novel, and last performance.
The narrative centers on themes of female rebellion, abjection, sexual freedom, and the search for autonomy outside patriarchal systems. The characters reject traditional roles and societal expectations, embarking on adventures that blend fantasy with punk rock sensibility. The pirate life becomes a metaphor for radical freedom and self-determination.
In the spirit of Antonin Artaud's Theater of Cruelty; Acker meant to rock audiences out of their complacency. Acker's style combines with The Mekons' politically charged music to create a work that challenges conventional narratives about gender, power, and identity. The musical features Acker reading excerpts from the novel interspersed with seven original Mekons songs, creating a hybrid theatrical experience that's part spoken word, part rock opera.
a THEATRICAL PUNK spectacle written by Kathy ACKER and the Mekons
Featuring Kathleen Hanna, Adele Bertei, Alice Bag, and Anna Joy Springer on JANUARY 8th and 9th, 2027
CAP UCLA NIMOY THEATRE
(JANUARY 9TH IS SOLD OUT!)
Kathy Acker (1947–1997) was an American experimental novelist, poet, playwright, and performance artist known for her transgressive writing that explored childhood trauma, sexuality, language, identity, and rebellion. Raised in a privileged but oppressive Upper East Side Jewish family, she turned her back on that world early, seeking a life of romantic and intellectual adventure that took her through many of the most significant avant-garde and countercultural moments in America. Influenced by William S. Burroughs and Charles Olson, she composed genre-crossing work in which she frequently appropriated and reshaped other texts to explore the intersections of sex, power, and language. Her notable works include Blood and Guts in High School, Empire of the Senseless, and Pussy, King of the Pirates. She died of untreated cancer at an alternative clinic in Tijuana at age fifty.
The Mekons are a British post-punk band formed in 1976 as an art collective by University of Leeds students, including Jon Langford and Tom Greenhalgh — the same scene that produced Gang of Four and Delta 5. Their debut single, "Never Been in a Riot," a sardonic response to the Clash's "White Riot," announced their down-to-earth humor and uncompromisingly radical politics. By the mid-1980s, augmented by vocalist Sally Timms and violinist Susie Honeyman, they began blending punk ethos with traditional folk and American country music, exemplified by the landmark album Fear and Whiskey (1985). One of the longest-running first-wave punk bands, they have continued recording and touring into the 21st century, with members also mounting collective art exhibitions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Pussy, King of the Pirates
Directed by Adele Bertei
Assistant Director, Anna Luisa Petrisko
and set design by Elaine Carey
The work unleashes the visceral energy of live punk alongside
fearless experimental theater. It is provocative, irreverent and politically charged.
Produced by Adele Bertei, Anna Luisa Petrisko, and Natalie G. Hill
Creative Consultant, Matias Viegener
Back the Mutiny
Join our rebellious crew. Your backing fuels this punk operetta as we storm the CAP UCLA Nimoy Theater on January 8th & 9th, 2027. Each tax-deductible gift keeps the chaos alive. Shout out to the Dress in Purple Grant/NYFA, and CAP UCLA. Donations are accepted by our Fiscal Sponsor, the Performance Art Museum, a 501(c)(3). For inquiries, hit us up at info@pussykingofthepirates.com
