InterAct Theatre Company will usher in 2014 with the second production of their 26th season - the Philadelphia premiere of Johnna Adams' riveting Gidion's Knot. In the play, Adams confronts us with "perhaps the most complicated kind of 'knot'" (San Gabriel Valley Tribune) as a grieving mother arrives at her son's school looking for answers following his sudden death and challenges his teacher and audiences alike to seek an answer to the age old question of nature versus nurture, as well as posing many other difficult questions.
In this two-woman drama, a mother meets her son's bewildered and fragile teacher for a parent-teacher conference. As their tense, emotionally-charged meeting unfolds, reasons for the boy's death become more complex and alarming. Adams' gripping drama draws us into an intensely personal battle to understand the vivid imagination and tortured soul of one extraordinary ten year-old boy. Director and InterAct Producing Artistic Director, Seth Rozin, guides the production which is guaranteed to "confound expectations and explode clichés" (DC Theatre Scene).
"The first time I sat down to read Gidion's Knot, I was completely engrossed in the drama from the play's opening moments," says Rozin. "And on each successive read I've become even more engrossed in the play's surprising emotional and psychological twists and turns. There's nothing like watching two people in a room, locked in a high stakes confrontation. This is a play that every parent and every teacher should see. "
The powerhouse cast is made up of Houston-based Alice Gatling, who plays Corryn, the boy's mother, and the boy's teacher, Heather, is played by Philadelphia's-own
Karen Peakes. The production team includes Set Designer Colin McIlvaine, Lighting Designer Maria Shaplin, Sound Designer Daniel Kontz, and Costume Designer Susan Smythe, along with Properties Designer Avista Custom Theatrical Services.
InterAct will continue this season's InterAct with Us program presented by PNC Arts Alive. InterAct with Us invites a young, community leader relevant to a theme in each of InterAct's four shows to "host" a viewing of the play. In order to make this special event more accessible to younger audiences, $10 tickets will be available for those attending the special event and the post-show reception at The Café (2011 Walnut Street). This production's event will be held on February 1 and the host is yet to be determined. For more information and $10 tickets, please call
215-568-8079.
Gidion's Knot runs from January 17 - February 9, 2014 with previews from January 17 - 21. Press opening is January 22 at 7p.m. InterAct Theatre Company is located at 2030 Sansom Street. Performances will be held Tuesday - Sunday. Tickets start at just $22 and may be purchased by phone 215-568-8079, on-line at
www.interacttheatre.org or in-person at the InterAct Theatre Company Box Office (M-F 10-6).
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