McPherson, Parnell, Etc. Part of Atlantic '07/8 Season

Atlantic Theater Company has announced its 2007-2008 season.  The main stage season at the Linda Gross Theater will mark premieres from three celebrated playwrights returning to the Atlantic stage and the Atlantic debut of an emerging young writer. 

Peter Parnell returns with the world premiere of Trumpery, following his acclaimed play The Cider House Rules. Artistic Director Neil Pepe directs British playwright Jez Butterworth's first American world premiere Parlour Song, marking the return of the celebrated playwright and screenwriter whose New York premiere of Mojo and American premiere of The Night Heron were both staged at Atlantic. Tony Award-nominated playwright Conor McPherson (Shining City) also returns to the company following his hit production of Dublin Carol, with the New York premiere of Port Authority, directed by Henry Wishcamper. Playwright Lucy Thurber will make her Atlantic debut with the world premiere of Scarcity.

Atlantic Stage 2, the company's new state-of-the-art theater, will feature world premiere limited engagements of Three Short Plays by Ethan Coen by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ethan Coen (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Fargo), directed by Artistic Director Neil Pepe and Annie Baker's comedy Body Awareness, staged by Atlantic Theater Company founding member Karen Kohlhaas (The Hothouse).

The Mainstage season follows:

Scarcity will run from August 29th through October 14th, with opening night set for September 20th. "Set in rural western Massachusetts, Scarcity tells the tale of two siblings whose aspirations to escape the confines of poverty and small town life come into direct conflict with their sense of family responsibility. When sixteen-year-old Billy is afforded an opportunity to change schools and move out of town by an unusually attentive young teacher, his family starts to unravel around him. In this raw, emotionally rich world premiere new drama, up-and-coming playwright Lucy Thurber explores the stark reality of how class in America shapes our very image of ourselves."

In Trumpery, running from November 14th through December 30th, with opening night set for December 10th, "it is 1858. Charles Darwin struggles to finish The Origin of Species, and give the world his theory of natural selection, while coping with family illness and his own loss of faith. Meanwhile, halfway around the world, an unknown explorer is about to come up with the exact same theory. Both vibrantly comic and deeply moving, Trumpery examines what it means to live in a Darwinian universe from the point of view of the man who discovered the idea."

Parlour Song begins previews February 8th, 2008, opens on March 6th and runs through March 30th. "Jez Butterworth takes on domestic paranoia in his inimitably sly and incisive style in Parlour Song, which explores what happens when two ordinary people discover they hate who they have become. In his first American world premiere production, Butterworth reveals a fascinating world where all is not what it seems, when a demolitions expert suspects his wife is stealing from him."

Port Authority runs from April 30th through June 22nd, with opening night set for May 21st. "Set against the backdrop of contemporary Dublin, Port Authority weaves the stories of three generations of Irishmen as they experience loss, failure and the elusiveness of love.  Conor McPherson (Shining City, The Weir, Dublin Carol) exposes the heart of the common man with his customary wit and humor in his return to Atlantic following his acclaimed production of Dublin Carol."

The Stage 2 season follows:

Three Short Plays by Ethan Coen plays a 4-week limited engagement beginning in January of 2008. It features "unique and comic new plays by acclaimed screenwriter and Academy Award-winning film maker Ethan Coen (O Brother Where Art Thou?, Fargo, The Big Lebowski)."

Body Awareness, which plays a 4-week limited engagement in May 2008, is set "at bucolic Shirley State College in Vermont (where) it is Body Awareness Week, and all must go according to plan. But when radical photographer Frank Bonitatibus shows up with his passel of photographs of naked women, things start to go awry. In this warm and witty satire, Baker blows the lid off of political correctness with a comic and touching window into a very unconventional family."

Visit www.atlantictheater.org for more information.

Photo - Conor McPherson

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