Red Tape Theatre to Stage HAMLET IS DEAD. NO GRAVITY, 1/27-2/22

Red Tape Theatre (RTT) continues their 10th Anniversary Season with the US premiere of hamlet is dead. no gravity by Ewald Palmetshofer, translated by Neil Blackadder and directed by Seth Bockley. The show will run January 27-February 22, 2014. All performances will be held at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, located at 621 W Belmont Ave. Tickets on sale now at www.redtapetheatre.org.

RTT's second show of their 10th season, hamlet is dead. no gravity will be a US Premiere, having previously received a staged reading in Chicago at the International Voices Project in March, 2013. In this play, relationships among family and friends shift, morph and are never what they seem - it is inevitable that something is going to happen. Playwright Ewald Palmetshofer weaves language and rhythm into something comic and threatening that ultimately leaves just one question open: to resign or to act?

Palmetshofer is the recipient of the Retzhofer Literary Prize (2005) and the Playwrights Prize of the Cultural Group of German Industry at the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI). His plays have been produced at the Schauspielhaus Vienna, the Schaubühne Berlin, the Theater an der Ruhr Mühlheim, the Schauspielhaus Dresden, among many others.

Translator, Neil Blackadder translates drama and prose from German and French, specializing in Contemporary Theatre. His English versions of plays have appeared in TheatreForum, The Brecht Yearbook and elsewhere and his work has also been supported by Ledig House, the Banff Centre, and frequently by the Goethe-Institut. Neil is Professor of Theatre at Knox College, and the author of PERFORMING OPPOSITION: MODERN THEATER AND THE SCANDALIZED AUDIENCE (Praeger, 2003).

Director, Seth Bockley is a Chicago-based playwright, director and performer. Directing credits include Philip Dawkins' Failure: A Love Story (Victory Gardens), The Ugly One by Marius von Mayenburg (Sideshow Theater), Jason Grote's Civilization: all you can eat for Clubbed Thumb (Summerworks 2011) and Grote's 1001 for Collaboraction, as well as CommComm, Jon, and numerous Redmoon events and spectacles. His devised project Guerra: A Clown Play, created through TCG's "On The Road" grant with Mexico City-based La Piara, was seen in Millennium Park Chicago's "In The Works" series and traveled to New York and Albuquerque in '12/'13. He is an artist in residence at the University of Chicago, and a playwright in residence at the Goodman Theatre.

Brief Summary: Something is rotten in the suburban family home of siblings Dani and Mani. Returning from the city for a friend's funeral and their grandma's birthday, the brother and sister encounter old friends Bine and Oli, now married. After an ill-advised reunion, relationships among family and friends shift, flip and are never what they seem - it is inevitable that something is going to happen. Acclaimed Austrian playwright Ewald Palmetshofer weaves language and dark wit into a searing tragicomedy that poses the question: to resign or to act?

About Red Tape Theatre: Now in its tenth season, RTT is committed to the creation of new and experimental work. RTT's plays invite their audiences to re-imagine their world. RTT's work serves a vital purpose in our community: to arrest attention and create empathy. Their ensemble collaborates with playwrights, musicians, dancers, and visual artists on their three annual productions housed in St. Peter's Episcopal Church. The unique performance space allows them to continually reinvent the audience/artist relationship.

The complete cast for hamlet is dead. no gravity is as follows:

DIRECTED by Seth Bockley

DANI Amanda Drinkall*
BINE Sarah Grant
CARO Lona Livingston*
KURT John Fenner Mays
OLI Blake Russell
MANI Alex Stage

*Denotes RTT Ensemble Member

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