The Brick presents
Im Dunkeln sieht man besser (transl. “You Can See Better in the Dark”)
by Leonie Bell with LOCAL GRANDMA
playing Oct 1-18, 2026
at The Brick Theater
running time 70 minutes
tickets $25-50

In a town where the living and undead cohabitate: Birthday girl Biggi performs a cabaret and attends a death. Hartmann, a rule-loving undead local, experiences a life-altering scheduling problem. Accountant-gone-theater-producer Harriet discovers a ghost from her past and decides to haunt them back. This revenge play features mean school girls, choral song + text in German and English.

Im Dunkeln sieht man besser (translation: “You can see better in the Dark”) is LOCAL GRANDMA’s third full-length production.

CREATIVE TEAM

Text: Leonie Bell
Direction: Leonie Bell + Celia Krefter
Costume Design: Karen Boyer
Lighting Design: Celia Krefter
Props Design: Jonathan Schatzberg
Set Design: Forest Entsminger
Sound Design: Leonie Bell
Fight Direction + Gore Design: Bailey Van Schepen
Stage Management: Akvinder Kaur
Run Crew + Screaming Title Maid: TBD
Press and Marketing: Privy Collective
Producing Team: Leonie Bell + Celia Krefter
A LOCAL GRANDMA Production

CAST

Leonie Bell
CHEEKS
Theodor Gabriel
Julliette Holliday
John R. Howley
Marcella Murray
Hanna Westi

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Leonie Bell (she/her) is a German-American theater artist from Berlin, based in New York. Leonie’s pieces feature live song, genre-fluid dance and physicality, and frequently include voluntary audience participation and communal rituals. She creates highly physical, dark humor theater landscapes populated by pseudo-historical, multilingual narratives that often center matriarchal lineages and imagine nature as a main character. In NYC, she has presented work at Target Margin Theater, Performance Space NY, BAM, The Whitney Museum, The Brick, Center for Performance Research, and other venues. Leonie produces much of her work through her free-form theater company LOCAL GRANDMA. She is an alumna of the Clubbed Thumb Director’s Fellowship, Mabou Mines Resident-Artist-Program, and BAX Upstart Program. www.leoniebell.org

LOCAL GRANDMA is a free-form theater company that creates and produces live performances, multimedia videos, and other interdisciplinary, genre-fluid projects. LG is based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn, NY and hosted by German-American artist Leonie Bell. Leonie started LG in 2020 as a support structure to help her produce her own work on a larger scale after showing it in mostly one- or two-night festivals. LG features a fluid combination of new and returning artists per project. To date, LOCAL GRANDMA has produced four projects, two multi-weekend theater productions, and two multi-media films. LG has worked with over 80 local and international artists and shared work with over 1300 virtual and in-person audience members. In 2025, they launched their first sliding scale workshop series featuring two clowning workshops hosted by Hannah Mitchell. www.localgrandma.org

Find them: @local_grandma_party @leonbellstein @galactic_celia @karenrboyer @jonschatzberg @forestbents @baileyvanschepen @nasa.nerdonaut @collective.privy @cheeeeeekss @theodor.gabriel @jullietteh @johnrhowley @marcirenee04 @hanna.westi

Content warning: Death, gore, suicidal ideations, strobing lights

This project was made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and the Mental Insight Foundation.