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Theatre de Complicité - Edited by Simon McBurney Mnemonic is the new production from the ground-breaking Theatre de Complicité, an exciting and original play about shared memory and discordant recollection. Stories originating from our discoveries of our ancestors' origins form a theatrical event exploring and questioning concepts of time and history. Theatre de Complicite was founded in 1983 and has created more than 27 productions ranging from adaptations and reinterpretations of classic texts to major devised pieces such as Mnemonic. Play Donald Margulies. 2 men, 2 women. Interior Having retired to Florida, Max and Lola, two elderly Holocaust survivors,
are dismayed to find that their new condo is not yet ready for occupancy
and that they are obliged to stay temporarily in a "model apartment" -a
tacky, gaudily decorated horror with a fake television set and refrigerator
where even the ashtrays are cemented in place. Max and Lola had hoped
to escape not only the nagging memories of their earlier lives, and
the terrors of present-day Brooklyn, but also their fat, schizophrenic
daughter, Debby, whom they had tried to "pay off" with generous amounts
of cash before their hasty departure. But Debby, who seems to symbolize
for them the awfulness of their past and their failures in the present,
soon appears, followed in short order by her boyfriend, Neil, a slightly
retarded black teenager whose limited sensibilities have been further
numbed by the grinding horrors of the urban ghetto. Sometimes moving
(as when Max, dreaming, imagines Debby as the lovely, innocent daughter
he lost to the Nazis) or darkly comic (as when Max and Lola gingerly
query Neil about how he and their daughter first met) the many short
scenes coalesce smoothly into an affecting; if sometimes disquieting,
whole, which makes it chillingly evident that those who are unable
to confront and overcome the demons of their past are doomed to be
forever haunted by them. Jez Butterworth Winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy, and for the author,
the George Devine and Evening Standard Awards for Most Promising
Playwright. It was recently filmed with Harold Pinter and Ewan Bremner.
Soho, 1958, in the seedy gangster underworld of the rock and roll
scene, club owners fight for control of Johnny Silver, the latest
young sensation. 'The Royal Court's most dazzling main-stage debut
in years' Michael Billington, Guardian. Play. Simon Gray Inspired by the notorious Rattenbury case, this is the story of
a murder. Teddy, embittered, deaf, with a lurking sadism, is married
to Molly, a much younger woman. Into this household comes Oliver,
a youth engaged as odd-job gardener. Despite his ignorance and general
unattractiveness, Molly succumbs to starting a squalid affair. After
witnessing Molly's humiliation by Teddy, the enraged Oliver, himself
taunted by Teddy, stabs his tormentor to death with the garden shears.
Period 1930s Drama. Brian Friel Three points of view about a poignant drama are related by three characters addressing the audience directly. First there is Molly, blind since early infancy, who describes her world before and after an operation to restore some of her sight. Her husband, Frank, who pushed Molly into this operation, relates his view of his wife's journey into sightedness, and his dealings with her doctor. Molly's once-famous eye surgeon, Mr. Rice, watches both Molly and Frank and reveals his opinion of them along with his own fears in handling the operation. Through it all we see each character's painful and happy histories, their memories and events that led them to meet. Their stories interweave on stage, threading in and around each other's lives, until the unexpected and touching conclusion to this striking tale. Drama. Louis LaRusso II. 3 men, 2 women. Interior. The Mastice brothers, Tony and Larry, have come home to join their
sister, Patsie, for the funeral of their mother. After the service
they are joined by their mother's sister, Aunt Tillie, and by their
long-time family physician, Dr. Carillo, who attended their mother
in her final illness. At first the mood is one of warm memories,
tempered by "family jokes" and the recollection of childhood antics,
but after Dr. Carillo leaves the atmosphere grows tense as Patsie
reveals her conviction that their mother died through the doctor's
neglect. Incredulous at first, the brothers' doubts gradually give
way as Patsie ties the doctor's action to the evil power of their
estranged father, a Mafia underlord who abandoned the family many
years before. In a gripping scene the brothers wring the truth from
Dr. Carillo, and then face the awful dilemma of how to punish the
one who is directly responsible for the tragedy - their father. Goaded
by the revengeful Patsie they reluctantly take the final, fatal step,
avenging their mother, but also shattering their peace of mind for
the years to come. Comedy. Donald Churchill When Audrey and Tony meet some while after their divorce, they share
memories, rekindle arguments and re-open wounds. Audrey, uncertain
about her new boyfriend's offer of marriage, finally makes up her
mind and accepts. Lucy, Audrey and Tony's daughter, reveals that
Tony had been hoping to start again with Audrey, but had been too
nervous to ask. Audrey marries her boyfriend, immediately regrets
it and is partially reconciled with Tony. Play. William Gibson. 3 men, 2 women. Unit Set. The action of the play takes place in Boston, seventeen years after
the events of The Miracle Worker. Helen is now an honour student
at Radcliffe, and she and Annie have undertaken to write a book about
their remarkable experiences. A young instructor of English from
Harvard, John Mary, is engaged to help them and Annie, yielding to
an overpowering need to pursue a life of her own, soon falls in love
with him. Their marriage, and the disruptive domestic triangle which
results, leads to the compelling crisis of the play. After years
of total dedication to her charge, Annie finds her loyalties divided
and Helen, herself aware of strong sexual stirrings, contributes
to the growing discord and the inevitable failure of her mentor's
marriage. As the play ends the two women accept the inescapable truth
of their condition - that they are inextricably bound together and
must find, in each other, whatever rewards life might bring. Drama. David Williamson. 5 men, 4 women. Unit Set Peter, a professor of pure mathematics, spends his weekends at Crystal
Inlet as do most of his friends - Conrad (a star television reporter)
and his wife Jaquie; Stephen (a surgeon) and his wife Penny; Alex
(a mega-lawyer) and his wife Vicki; and Margaret, a history professor,
Peter's closest friend. Peter and Margaret are the exceptions to
wealth and marriage - his wife passed away and her husband left her
for a yóunger woman. As this weekend begins, Margaret is a
little more bitter than usual and Peter is a little more accommodating
as they've both got something bothering them. During drinks one evening,
Margaret, fed up with the "tribe," gets a little too nasty, ending
the evening on a sour note. Margaret's honesty prompts Peter to-tell
her that he's about to lose everything unless he can come with $40,000
to cover a failed loan. She insists he tell everyone and ask for
their help, but he refuses and makes her promise not reveal anything.
The weekend progresses and, taking Margaret's lead, Peter attempts
some honesty, starting with her. He tells Margaret to stop picking
up younger men, and then goes on to inform his other friends what
he really thinks, leaving them stunned. Initially, except Margaret,
they never want to see him again, but soon realise that what Peter
did was actually good for them. Realising that Peter is really their
best friend, Alex and Vicki plan a surprise party in his honour.
In the light of these plans Margaret can't keep quiet and spills
the story of Peter's financial trouble and suggesting they should
loan him $40,000. Despite their wealth, however, they'd rather die
than part with any of their money, even to help their friend. In
the end, all are forced to make decisions regarding Peter's debt,
and as money initially tore them apart, it will inevitably bring
some of the friends back together again. Comedy/drama. Christopher Kyle. Dennis, a forty-something poet who has never lived up to his earlier
promise, has just written a collection of poems concerned with the
relevance of monogamy in 1990s America. And, in a testament to his
new philosophy, he's recently married his longtime companion, Susan,
a professor of women's literature at Princeton. So imagine Dennis's
surprise when he fords Susan in bed with one of her students, the
morally ambiguous Tim. Thrown into a mid-life crises by his wife's
infidelity, Dennis ends up in the arms of Sky, a confused twentyyearold
who says she voted for George Bush because she's fanatically prochoice
on abortion! As the liberal Dennis leads Sky toward political enlightenment,
he is forced to reevaluate his work and his relationships - even
the legacy of his precious 60s generation. An edgy and original satire, The
Monogamist examines art, love and politics in an age where the
rules for each of them no longer apply. Play. Brian Friel, after Turgenev. In the introduction, Brian Friel identifies the novelty of Turgenev's drama 'where psychological and poetic elements create a theatre of moods and where the action resides in internal emotion and secret turmoil'. His lively, comic play describes the course of a passionately eventful summer month in which Natalya, luminous, anguished and possessed by love, is left to recover a measure of happiness after her turbulent disquiet. Period early 1840s Natalya Petrovna, once wooed and won over by the rich landowner Arkady Sergeyevich,. has now suffered a long and frustrating marriage. She has taken comfort in the love of Michel, a family friend, but even he has come to represent the same kind of boredom Natalya finds with her doting husband. Instead, it is Aleksey, her son's dashing 21-year-old tutor, whom Natalya now desires. Natalya's beautiful and energetic ward Vera, though, can't help but compete for Aleksey's affections, being so close to him in age. How to position herself between Aleksey and Vera, then, becomes Natalya's obsession during the hot summer days, and when she learns that a neighboring landowner wants to marry Vera, Natalya seizes the chance to remove the only obstacle between her and seducing away the young Aleksey. Heartbreaking though the consequences may be for Vera - her suitor, you see, is almost 60 - Natalya goes to increasingly dangerous ends to encourage the match while simultaneously wooing Aleksey. Risking her home, her marriage and even the only man who's ever sworn to stand by her, proves to be too much. Abandoned in the end by everyone but her husband, Natalya's situation comes to represent the thoroughly modern predicament of never being satisfied with what one has. Play Ivan Turgenev. Translated by Ariadne Nicolaef. The place is the country estate of the Islayevs, a wealth Russian
family: the time the middle of the 19th century. It is summer, and
the lives of the family and their entourage reflect the bored indolence
so characteristic of the aristocracy of the time. However, conflict
arises when Natalya, the lady of the house, conceives an infatuation
for Belyayev, her young son's tutor. She finds herself in competition
with her ward, Vera, who is also smitten with the engaging, if ingenuous,
young man. Moved by her emotions, but fearful of compromising her
position, Natalya nevertheless manages to upset the others in the
household - her husband, her mother-in-law, her lovelorn admirer,
Rakitin, and her ward. Only the village doctor, a self-made man whose
cynical observations provide a telling counterpoint to the actions
of the others, seems to be removed from their problems. In the end,
of course, the crisis ebbs, the tutor departs, tangled relationships
are sorted out, and lives resume the gentle ease from which they
had been stirred by this brief and unlikely flicker of passion. Comedy. Ivan Turgenev. Adapted into English by Emlyn Williams This play, originally censored on the ground of immorality, is the story of Turgenev's own disappointed romance with the wife of a friend. The young tutor who arrives on the Yslaev estate stays a month, during which both the land-owner's wife and her ward fall in love with him. He has to leave as does his wife's platonic lover. A sub-plot interwoven into the play reveals a world of sexual and mercenary intrigue. Period early 1840s Russia Play. Bob Larbey Set in a rest home, this play revolves around two residents: Cooper, who has voluntarily left his family to avoid the indignity of depending on them, and his friend Aylott, both on the verge of some geriatric embarrassment. To the painful ritual of family visits and empty condescension the two inmates reply with humour and wit, aware that life can only be endured if treated as a comedy. Comedy. Gerald Savory Oliver dreams of going back to the land. Unfortunately, his family
finds the discomforts of their farm no substitute for civilization.
The new farmhand Tim cannot bear seeing good land wasted by Oliver's
incompetence; unwisely, he says so, the night he and Oliver's daughter
Sarah get engaged. Oliver immediately sacks him. Eventually Oliver
takes his jubilant family back to civilization, leaving the farm
to Tim and Sarah. |