CONVERSATIONS AFTER A BURIAL to Open at Cesear's Forum This Fall

Cesear's Forum will present Yasmina Reza's CONVERSATIONS AFTER A BURIAL, translated by Christopher Hampton in a limited September/October engagement at Kennedy's Down Under, Playhouse Square.  The funeral of French Patriarch Simon Weinberg delves into the complexities of familial relationships.  Coping with loss and grief, the characters' vulnerabilities are underscored by the absurdities of situational interactions.  Heartfelt moments and witty banter give way to nervous tensions and an apparent relationship love triangle.  An unlovable figurehead was nevertheless loved. 

Yasmina Reza was raised in France by a Jewish Russian-Iranian father and Hungarian mother.     CONVERSATIONS AFTER A BURIAL (Conversations après un enterrement), Ms. Reza's debut play, was written in 1987 and premiered in Paris.  The English translation by Christopher Hampton was presented by the Almeida Theatre in London in 2000.  Ms. Reza's best known “commercial” plays include ART and GOD OF CARNAGE.  The latter was made into the film CARNAGE, directed by Roman Polanski.  Cesear's Forum presented her play, LIFE x 3 in 2017 and THE UNEXPECTED MAN in 2007.  In addition to plays, novels and screenplays, Ms. Reza appeared as an actress professionally.  She notes that in production collaboration of her work, interest is less about meaning than instinct and one might conclude that instinct informs her characters' visceral behavior.

The Cesear's Forum 90 minute production will follow the playwright's intended use of a minimalist setting by Daniel Telford that allows the audience to focus on and identify with the character driven narratives.  With lighting by Andrew Kaletta, costumes by Sarah Russell, the production will be staged by Artistic Director Greg Cesear.  The cast includes: Abraham Adams, Kristie Lang, Abbey Marshall, Roland Moore, Douglas Sutherland and Valerie Young.  The production is sponsored, in part, by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and the Bonne Bell Foundation.

Cesear's Forum, Cleveland's small professional theatre company, continues to evolve a distinctive body of regional work with a social and experimental edge.  Past productions have included adaptation and original material with work by noted genre playwrights that include: Samuel Beckett, Edward Albee, Caryl Churchill, Peter Weiss and an ensemble approach to the material within a minimalist imprimatur.    

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