14/10/2026
Recently in New York:
COOKIE
A play by Georgia Gardner Gray
Premiered at the High Line
The play follows the traditional picaresque format, a literary style developed during the height of Spain’s Golden Age in which a clever but poor hero, a pícaro, uses their wits and tricks to survive in a corrupt and crumbling society. Drawing inspiration from 16th-century picaresque novellas like Lazarillo de Tormes and Francisco de Quevedo’s THE SWINDLER, COOKIE is a story of desperation disguised as elite ambition. At its center is Gunnar Churchwell, a sleazy yet charismatic suit salesman who arrives in Madrid, only to be recruited by the egomaniacal ringleader of a grifting crew of makeshift “tailors.” Their baseline rule for survival is simple: “never let them know you are hungry.”
Staged in the parking lot of the Meatpacking District’s former final meat purveyor, the performance unfolds around THE LIAR, a twisted aluminum sculpture resembling a street scaffold. The performance critiques societal decay, and highlights anti-heroes who maneuver through the cracks of a glittering superpower purely to secure their next meal.
Featuring:
Sam Anderson Sam Anderson
Horacio Alcelea Crespo horacioalcoleacrespohoracio
Matthew Linde M
Teddy Rosen
Valentina Vacarella
Matt Veer
Zachary Zamsky Zachary Zamsky
All photos by Walter Wlodarczyk, courtesy of The High Line, New York.
High Line Art The High Line
