Casting Announced for Atlantic's Double Bill of Pinter's Celebration and The Room

Atlantic Theater Company has announced casting for the second production of its 20th Anniversary Season. The double bill of Harold Pinter's most recent and first plays, Celebration and The Room, directed by Neil Pepe, will begin previews on Wednesday, November 16 and officially open on Monday, December 5, 2005. The show's limited engagement will run through Sunday, January 8.

The Room will feature Atlantic Company members Kate Blumberg, Mary Beth Peil, David Pittu and guest artists Earle Hyman, Peter Maloney and Thomas Jay Ryan. Celebration will feature Atlantic Company members Blumberg, Pittu and guest artists Betsy Aidem, Patrick Breen, Brennan Brown, Phillip Goodwin, Carolyn McCormick, Ryan and Christa Scott-Reed.

 

"Harold Pinter's most recent (Celebration) and first play (The Room) complement each other in this rarely staged double-bill. Celebration opens on a wedding anniversary in an ultra-trendy restaurant, with three successful couples jockeying for the upper hand. In contrast, The Room descends into a nightmare world of insecurity and uncertainty in a shabby one-room London flat. Although separated by more than 40 years, both plays resonate with the human desperation to find safe haven in a threatening world," according to production notes.

 

Harold Pinter, one of America and Britain's most celebrated and influential playwright and poets, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature last week for his prolific body of work. Beginning with his breakthrough play The Caretaker in 1959, he was responsible for the creation of a spare language of verbal evasion and menace, both unspoken and vividly expressed. The Swedish Academy cited "Pinter restored theater to its basic elements – an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles." Other Pinter plays include The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, Old Times, Mountain Language, Moonlight and Betrayal.

The double bill boasts scenic design by Walt Spangler, lighting design by David Weiner, costume design by Ilona Somogyi, and sound design by Obadiah Eaves.

 

In honor of its 20th Anniversary Season, Atlantic will offer the "Play for the Price of a Movie" $10 theater ticket in an effort to build young audiences and attract first time theatergoers. Fifteen seats at every performance will be available to the general public. Subscriptions are also available, with members seeing every Atlantic Theatre show in the season for $20 each. Tickets may be reserved in advance by calling 212-691-5919 ext. 126 or may be purchased at the box office (336 West 20th Street) two hours prior to curtain.

For more information, visit www.atlantictheater.org.

 

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