In April 2021 we welcomed the creative team behind the multidisciplinary theater/video installation Opiate d’Amour, lead by artist, playwright, designer, and director John Jahnke and presented by Hotel Savant. Opiate d’Amour is a Grand Guignol tragicomedy that explores the impact of wealth, assimilation and social status on gay relationships while following the rapid dissolution of a long-term relationship over the course of one very dark and tumultuous evening. Written in residence at The Hermitage Artist Retreat in 2015, the team will use their time at MASS MoCA to film sections of the work throughout the museum campus which will be integrated into a forthcoming live presentation.

Opiate d’Amour
John Jahnke/Hotel Savant
Script/Direction/Design – John Jahnke
Presented by Hotel Savant
Featuring: Sean Donovan, Craig Dolezel, Andrew Schneider and Hwalan Shub
Produced by Karla Brom
Associate Direction Jill A. Samuels
Cinematography by Kyle Parsons
Focus Puller Steven Tong
Costumes Ramona Ponce
Stage Management Karen Oughtred

About the Artist
John Jahnke is an artist, playwright, designer, and director of multidisciplinary theater and video. He is the Artistic Director of Hotel Savant, a performance company based in New York City. His work explores the seminal ideologies of history and mythology that correlate to present-day topics and is inspired by the application of artifice that humanity employs to mask their true identity.

He has developed and presented work at BAM Next Wave, Performance Space 122, The Watermill Center, The MacDowell Colony, The Park Avenue Armory, The Public Theater, The Hermitage Artist Retreat, Yaddo, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Orchard Project, Abrons Art Center, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and 3LD Art and Technology Center, among others.

He studied ballet at The Interlochen Arts Academy and the Milwaukee Ballet and is a graduate of the Visual Arts Program at the California Institute of the Arts, where he minored in opera studies.

Gifts from individuals like you strengthen MASS MoCA’s ability to support artists and art-making like this. Please consider making a $5 donation here.

MASS MoCA’s Artist-in-Residence program is supported by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Additional support is provided by the New England Foundation for the Arts through the New England Arts Resilience Fund, part of the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with major funding from the federal CARES Act from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Video still from Opiate d’Amour
Script/Direction/Design – John Jahnke
Presented by Hotel Savant
Featuring: Melody Bates, Bruno Llos, Alessandro Magania, TL Thompson and Jonah Udall
Associate Direction Jill A. Samuels
Videography by Kyle Parsons
Focus Puller Steven Tong