A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, continues its 2014-2015 REVOLUTIONary season with The Dance of Death by August Strindberg in a new adaptation by Irish playwright Conor McPherson, which opens on Saturday, October 18 and runs through Sunday, November 23, 2014.
Directed by Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, this is the West Coast premiere of the new McPherson adaptation, which had its U.S. premiere earlier this year in Chicago. In 2007, Ben Brantley of the New York Times called McPherson "quite possibly the finest playwright of his generation." The cast features Geoff Elliott* as Edgar, Susan Angelo* as Alice, and Eric Curtis Johnson* as Kurt. *Denotes member of Actors' Equity
Written in 1900, The Dance of Death depicts the dissolution of a marriage between Edgar, an artillery captain, and Alice, a former actress. This couple, married for a quarter century, lives on a remote Nordic island - the ideal setting for feelings of claustrophobia and dysfunction. When Kurt, Alice's cousin arrives in their manipulative marital landscape, the intensity escalates into a deadly battle of wills, with a black comedic edge. Strindberg's mordant yet bracingly funny play about spouses revolting against each another was revolutionary in its brutally honest depiction of marital discord and psychological warfare, and influenced an array of 20th century playwrights, not the least of whom are Edward Albee and John Guare.
Co-Artistic Producing Director Julia Rodriguez-Elliott talks about The Dance of Death and the McPherson adaptation, "Life did not turn out as these two married characters thought it would and they spend their days punishing each other for it. But they do it with sharp wit and unexpected humor-everyone who loved The War of the Roses and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? will just eat up this play. And anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship can relate to Edgar and Alice, who show us sides of ourselves we never thought we'd see on stage."
Rodriguez-Elliot continues, "We've long looked for a translation of this Strindberg play that could make it available and alive for a modern audience, and when we became aware of the McPherson version, we fell in love with it. We are all attracted to great love stories and Dance of Death is one unlike any other."
About the McPherson adaptation,
Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune said, "the new adaptation by the great Irish scribe
Conor McPherson, a playwright who likes having devils walk through the door, or lurk on the stoop, or plop down in a character's head... he takes the usual expressionistic sexual tension you find in your everyday Strindberg and ups the ante when it comes to the characters confronting mortality. Big time."
London critics described the adaptation as "a grotesque comedy that anticipates the work of theatrical absurdists such as Beckett and Ionesco," (C. Spencer, UK Telegraph) while Michael Billington in The Guardian noted that The Dance of Death in this version "is a profoundly seminal work ... you vividly sense Strindberg's view of the absurdity of the human condition."
Single ticket prices for The Dance of Death start at $40. Contact the A Noise Within box office in person, via phone at 626-356-3100, or online at
www.ANoiseWithin.org for updated pricing and seat availability.
Conor McPherson was born in Dublin in 1971. Plays include: Rum & Vodka (Fly-by-Night Theatre Co. Dublin), The Good Thief (Dublin Theatre Festival,
Stewart Parker Award), The Weir (Royal Court, Duke of York's West End,
Walter Kerr Theatre, New York;
Laurence Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics' Circle,
George Devine Awards), Dublin Carol (Royal Court & Atlantic Theater, New York), Port Authority (
Ambassadors Theatre West End,
Gate Theatre Theater, Dublin & Atlantic Theater, New York), Shining City (Royal Court,
Gate Theatre, Dublin & Manhattan Theatre Club New York; Tony Award nomination Best Play), The Seafarer (National Theatre,
Abbey Theatre Dublin, Booth Theatre New York;
Laurence Olivier, Evening Standard, Tony Award nominations Best Play), The Veil (National Theatre) and The Night Alive (
Donmar Warehouse). Theatre adaptations include Daphne du Maurier's The Birds (
Gate Theatre, Dublin &
Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis) and
August Strindberg's The Dance of Death (Donmar at Trafalgar Studios).
This engagement of The Dance of Death includes a symposium on Wednesday, October 15 at 7:30 PM (symposium starts at 6:00pm, play at 7:30pm) by Anne-
Charlotte Harvey, who will discuss the play prior to that evening's performance. There will also be post-performance conversations with the artists of The Dance of Death on Friday, October 24 and Friday, October 31 as well as Sunday November 9 at 2 PM. A Pay What You Can performance takes place on Thursday, October 16 at 7:30 PM. A Noise Within is located on the corner of Foothill Boulevard and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue at 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107.
A Noise Within's 2014-2015 Season -- Informed by the climate of social and economic upheaval in which we live, the season's them -- reflected in a kaleidoscopic palette of plays -- is REVOLUTION. After The Dance of Death, the season continues with A Christmas Carol by
Charles Dickens, returning for a third season (December 5-23, 2014). Spring productions: The Threepenny Opera by
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weil (Feb 15-May 2, 2015), is followed by the West Coast premiere of Figaro by
Charles Morey, freely adapted from Le Mariage de Figaro by Beaumarchais (March 1- May 10, 2015) and concludes with Julius Caesar by
William Shakespeare (March 22- May 8, 2015). The season is punctuated by a series of three first-time events, REVOLUTIONRep (April 12 and 25, May 2), a full day of theatre, talks, and dinner, with ingenious stagecraft that allows The Threepenny Opera and Julius Caesar to be performed on the same set on the same day.
About A Noise Within - A Noise Within, founded in 1991, is among the country's pre-eminent presenters of classical theatre and is the leading presenter of these plays in Southern California. The company's mission is to produce world-class performances of the great works of drama in rotating repertory with a resident company; to educate and inspire the public through programs that foster an understanding and appreciation of history's great plays and playwrights; and to train the next generation of classical theatre artists.
Originally based in a former Masonic Temple in Glendale, the company moved to its present home -- a building of architectural distinction designed by Edward Durrell Stone of Kennedy Center fame -- in 2011. Helmed by Producing Artistic Directors Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott, who hold MFAs from San Francisco's American Conservatory Theatre, A Noise Within delivers a seven-show repertory season and a wide range of educational programs to diverse audiences from Los Angeles County and well beyond. Voted "Best Theatre" by readers of both Time Out Los Angeles and Pasadena Weekly, A Noise Within is indeed "California's Home for the Classics."
