Axis Company Presents 'SEVEN IN ONE BLOW' Begins Tonight

Following Solitary Light, which premiered as part of the second annual Theater:Village festival, Axis Theatre Company will present its beloved family holiday show, Seven in One Blow, or the Brave Little Kid. Adapted from the classic fairy tale by The Brothers Grimm, this interactive winter play is conceived by Axis and directed by Randy Sharp, who also wrote the adaptation and composed the music. Though the poignant tale was created for kids, the Axis production-which teases out some of the many plausible subtexts-resonates equally well for adults. All proceeds for the performance on Saturday, December 13 at 3:00 P.M. will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Axis will stage the 13th annual production of Seven in One Blow, or the Brave Little Kid today, December 5-21. Performances take place Fridays at 7:00 P.M., and Saturdays and Sundays at 3:00 P.M.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students/seniors and $5 for kids, and are available at 212.352.3101 and www.AxisCompany.org. Running time: 50 minutes. The show is appropriate for ages 4 and up. Axis Theatre is located at One Sheridan Square in Manhattan's West Village, just off 7th Avenue (accessible from the 1 train at Christopher Street or the A/B/C/D/E/F/M at West 4th Street).

Set just before the holidays on a snowy winter day, Seven in One Blow, or the Brave Little Kid tells the story of a child living in the city who kills seven flies with a single swat and makes a belt emblazoned with "Seven in One Blow" to commemorate the event. The Kid travels through the snow and meets numerous colorful characters along the way, including the Scarlet Pimpernel, a Pea, December, a Witch, an Ogre and a Princess. Most people think this belt refers to seven people and assign the Kid all kinds of difficult tasks based on this faulty presumption. Over the course of the take, invaluable lessons are learned: an Ogre finds that you don't always have to show how strong you are to be strong; a girl realizes that when you tease someone, you may be hurting a person who is just like you; and a scary monster understands that because she is loved, she may not be so scary after all. In the end, after a surprise twist, the Kid discovers that a parent's love and care has no limits.

The cast, most of whom have participated since the first production in 2002, of Seven in One Blow, or the Brave Little Kid includes Marc Palmieri, Lynn Mancinelli, Jim Sterling, Brian Barnhart, George Demas, Britt Genelin, Spencer Aste, Edgar Oliver, Laurie Kilmartin, Regina Betancourt and, in a special on-film appearance, Deborah Harry as the Mom. The production team features lighting design by David Zeffren; sound design and music production by Steve Fontaine; and costumes by Karl Ruckdeschel, based on the original design by Kate Aronsson.

Seven in One Blow, or the Brave Little Kid is now published and produced around the country. It is part of an eclectic repertoire of original and published plays that Axis Theatre Company has produced. Past productions include David Crabb's highly acclaimed Bad Kid, directed by Josh Matthews; Sharp's Solitary Light, which premiered as part of the second annual Theater:Village festival, Last Man Club, which earned a Drama Desk nomination for Best Sound Design in a Play; Edgar Oliver's In The Park and East 10th Street, which was a recipient of the Edinburgh Fringe First Award in 2009, part of the Spoleto Festival in 2010, and re-mounted to much acclaim at PS 122 last season; the U.S. premiere of Sarah Kane's Crave, starring Deborah Harry; Buchner's Woyzeck; Beckett's Play; Benjamin Baker's 1848 vaudeville A Glance at New York (Edinburgh Fringe & NYC); Julius Caesar; USS Frankenstein; Down There, Sharp's play about the torture and murder of 16 Year-Old Sylvia Likens; and the premiere of Marc Palmieri's Levittown (directed by George Demas). Axis's episodic play Hospital, about the interior life of a man in a coma, is a West Village phenomenon every summer. In 2006, Axis Company produced a feature film, Henry May Long, which won 13 film festival awards in the U.S. and Canada.