Photo Flash: Roundabout Underground's The Language of Tree

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) presents The Language of Trees, a new play by Steven Levenson, directed by Alex Timbers, featuring Maggie Burke as "Kay Danley," Natalie Gold as "Loretta Trumble-Pinkerstone," Michael Hayden as "Denton Pinkerstone," Gio Perez as "Eben Trumble-Pinkerstone" and Michael Warner as "Bill Clinton."

The Language of Trees began preview performances on Saturday, October 4th and will officially open on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008. This will be a limited engagement through December 14th, 2008.

The Language of Trees is the second production of Roundabout Underground, an initiative launched in 2007 to introduce and cultivate artists in Roundabout's 62-seat Black Box Theatre, at the Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theatre (111 West 46th Street, NYC, NY, 10036). All tickets for Roundabout Underground productions are $20. The inaugural production of Roundabout Underground was a sold-out run of Stephen Karam's acclaimed play Speech & Debate, which extended twice.

When an American translator is sent into a U.S. war zone in the Middle East, a friendly neighbor volunteers to help out his wife and young son back at home. As events abroad spiral out of control, the lives of all the characters are turned upside down. The Language of Trees is a boldly theatrical and provocative new play about the fragility of language, the ecology of war and the meaning of neighborliness in an age of terror.

Photos by Joan Marcus