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Wheelhouse Theater Company today announced that it will present a staged reading of Oracles: Primitive Murderous Rage and Oedipusgate written by Jonathan Lynn and directed by Wheelhouse's Artistic Director, Jeff Wise. The reading will be held at Manhattan Theatre Club Studios, 311 West 43rd St., on Thursday, 10/31 at 1:30 pm and Friday 11/01 at 11am. Featured in the cast will be Alfred Molina, Austin Pendleton, Nadia Bowers, Lori Tan Chinn, Janet Dacal, Christopher Hanke, David Kenner, Magaret Odette and Lee Aaron Rosen. Industry members can arrange for tickets by emailing: contact@wheelhousetheater.org
Oracles is a hilarious double bill of ego, uncontrolled power, and prescient Greek tragedy. Primitive Murderous Rage examines what happens when an ambitious psychologist goes for a quick, aggressive and efficient fix of a woman suffering from pathological boredom. Oedipusgate, an up-to-the-minute take on the legend that everyone thinks they know, shows that Sophocles predicted the Trump administration in 430 BC. Oracles, ancient or modern, often get it wrong...
Born in Britain, Jonathan Lynn most recently directed two plays he wrote: Yes Prime Minister at the Gielgud and the Apollo, and The Patriotic Traitor at the Park. Directed 10 feature films including My Cousin Vinny, The Whole Nine Yards, the cult classic Clue (writing the screenplay), Nuns on the Run (also written by Mr. Lynn). BBC: co-wrote and created Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, with Antony Jay. Books: The Complete Yes Minister and The Complete Yes, Prime Minister selling more than a million copies in hardback, translated into numerous languages, still in print 30 years later; a memoir about comedy Comedy Rules. Novels: Mayday (1991) Samaritans (2018). Awards include BAFTA, Writers Guild (twice), Broadcasting Press Guild (twice), NAACP Image Award, Ace Award, and a Special Award from the UK Campaign for Freedom of Information. He's lived in the US since 1989 and now lives in New York.
Jeffrey Wise (Director/Wheelhouse Founding Member) is an actor, director, Tony-winning producer and founder of Wheelhouse Theater Company. For Wheelhouse, Jeff has directed Life Sucks by Aaron Posner (Drama Desk nomination for Best Director), Happy Birthday Wanda June by Kurt Vonnegut (Lortel Nomination), Ibsen's An Enemy of the People, Shakespeares' Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar and the world premiere of DannyKrisDonnaVeronica by Lawrence Dial. He co-produced the critically acclaimed world premiere In the Room with Slant Theatre Project. Jeff also produced the Tony award-winning revival of Once on This Island on Broadway. In NYC he as directed productions of Henry IV Part 2, Hamlet, BACK, and Dear Penthouse. Stage credits include Hamlet, Lend me a Tenor, Pajama Game, Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, BACK, Three Sisters, Six Degrees of Separation, Bus Stop, and La Ronde. Jeff received his MFA in Acting from New York University.
Casting is by Eisenberg/Beans Casting (Daryl Eisenberg, CSA / Ally Beans, CSA), and General Management is by Visceral Entertainment (Michael Chase Gosselin / Tim Sulka).
Wheelhouse Theater Company is a process-oriented company driven by a collective curiosity by founders Jeff Wise, Matt Harrington, David Kenner and Michael Schantz. As artist citizens, Wheelhouse aims to respond to the world through classic, new and devised plays in order to distill socially relevant issues to their essence. From its official inception in February 2016, Wheelhouse, under Artistic Director Jeff Wise, has produced Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet and the World Premiere of Lawrence Dial's In the Room (in collaboration with the Slant Theatre Project). In 2017, Wheelhouse produced Ibsen's masterpiece An Enemy of the People to critical acclaim. Shortly thereafter Wheelhouse helped Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges develop the original play Caged that was derived from the personal stories of 28 inmates in a maximum-security prison in New Jersey. Wheelhouse found its way on the map with the critically acclaimed revival of Kurt Vonnegut Jr's Happy Birthday, Wanda June at the Duke on 42nd St (Lucille Lortel nomination, best revival) and subsequently presented a much-lauded production of Aaron Posner's Life Sucks which garnered two Drama Desk nominations.
