Rubicon Presents World Premiere 'Bad Apples'

A trio of amorous, amusing and oddly lovable lawbreakers will invade Ventura's Rubicon Theatre Aug. 16, when the company presents the World Premiere of Mark Stein's Bad Apples. Ovation Award winner Nick DeGruccio directs Stein's sexy, subversive, slightly warped comedy.

The sixth production and third world premiere of Rubicon Theatre Company's 2006-07 season, Bad Apples previews Aug. 16 and 17, with the official premiere at 7 p.m. Aug. 18. Performances continue through Sept. 9 at the theatre, a cultural landmark in historic downtown Ventura.

"Onetime high school sweethearts Peg and Brook seem like your normal suburban couple – except for the huge hole in the floor of their living room," state press notes.  "Their good friend Eddie is digging it, and their nosy neighbor Ida is dying to discover why. Passions flair, motivations morph and alliances shift in a variety of witty ways before the comedy comes to its strangely liberating conclusion."
 
Stein, whose previous work includes the plays At Long Last Leo and Mating Dance of the Werewolf and the film "Housesitter" starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, was inspired to write Bad Apples as he considered, "What would be the effect of a play that seduces the audience into rooting for the bad guys?" When originally workshopped in Rubicon's Plays-in-Progress series in 2005 (under the title Exit Wounds) the audience found the answer: a lot of laughter.

Creating characters who live by their own peculiar ethical code is Stein's way of grappling with "our tendency to believe we are in the right, no matter what," according to the playwright. "I find it intriguing to consider the nature of our moral compasses. What are they? Where are they rooted?"

Tickets for Bad Apples can be purchased online at www.rubicontheatre.org or by phone at 805-667-2900.  The Rubicon Theatre is located at 1006 E. Main Street in Ventura's Downtown Cultural District.  

Photo by Martin S. Fuentes, Brooks Institute of Photography.

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