'Man Himself,' Play About Religious Extremism, Starts 9/5

Ami Dayan (A Tale of a Tiger) will return to 59E59 Theaters with Alan Drury's critically acclaimed play about religious extremism, The Man Himself, in a new American adaptation by Drury and Dayan.

The Man Himself begins previews on Tuesday, September 5 for a limited engagement through Sunday, October 1.  The press opening is Sunday, September 10 at 7:30 PM. 

Originally produced at London's National Theatre, celebrated internationally by press and audiences with over 50 productions worldwide and a feature film in development, The Man Himself  "explores an everyman's drift to religious-right extremism," state press notes. The play is a" horrifically comic wake-up-call about Evangelical America."

Drury has created well over 50 scripts produced for theatre, radio and television. He has been  Resident Dramatist at York Theatre Royal and The Royal Court Theatre in London, a story editor for BBC TV and Talisman Films, and Literary Manager for Hampstead Theatre in London and BBC Radio Drama. He has worked in all forms of British theatre from fringe and theatre-in-  education to the prestigious national companies. His translations of Moliere's The Miser and The Hypochondriac are standard versions in Britain, and he has also adapted Strindberg and Pirandello. His most recent work is Mrs. Boston (BBC Radio 4, May 2005) and a new stage  monologue, A State of Grace, which opens in London this fall after a try-out earlier this year. He is currently Royal Literary Fund Fellow at de Montfort University, Leicester.

Dayan (adapter/performer) is an award winning Israeli-American playwright, director and actor living in Boulder, Colorado. A two-time recipient of the America Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship, Dayan studied, directed and performed in the United States, Europe and Israel. His play The End received the 2002 Westword Award for Best Original Script. His one man free adaptation of Nobel Prize Laureate Dario Fo's A Tale of a Tiger has been performed worldwide since 1994, receiving its Off Broadway debut in 2004 at 59E59 Theaters, followed by a 2005 Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Outstanding Non Residential Production. His new production Masked, about three Palestinian brothers in the Intifada (Palestinian uprising), just completed a sold out run in Colorado and is preparing for a national tour.

The performance schedule is Tuesday-Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM and 8:30 PM; Sunday at 3:30 PM and 7:30 PM.  Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison).  Single tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 members) and are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at www.ticketcentral.com.