THE MALCONTENT Plays Antaeus Company, 5/5-6/19

The true Duke of Genoa has lost his throne to the usurper Pietro, but returns to his corrupt court disguised as Malevole, a surly cynic seeking revenge with the only weapon he needs - his savage wit. Antaeus, L.A.'s classical theater company and winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critic's Circle Award for Outstanding Season for 2010, opens its second full season with John Marston's rarely produced masterpiece, The Malcontent. Four gala openings of the fully double-cast production, two with each cast, take place May 5, 6, 7 and 8, with performances continuing through June 19. Low-priced previews begin April 28. Antaeus is located at 5112 Lankershim Blvd. (inside Deaf West Theatre) in the NoHo Arts District.

In John Marston's shocking, funny, filthy, and surprising tour de force, the former Duke of Genoa takes the disguise of the outrageous Malevole (the titular Malcontent) to spy on the corrupt foibles of the new Duke and his unctuous cronies. Disguises, false deaths, seductions, deceptions, and adulteries all drive the plot of this enormously entertaining play.

"It's a wickedly funny, very dangerous piece that is almost never done," explains director Elizabeth Swain. "I knew that Antaeus would be the company that could pull it off. When you double cast, the idea is that the actors will feed off each other in rehearsal, making each individual performance much more layered and textured than if the play were single cast. That's what's happening here. The Antaeus actors are brilliantly inventive. The excitement in rehearsals is unbelievable."

Often categorized as a revenge play, The Malcontent is reminiscent of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Measure for Measure and, like the latter, is one of the first English tragicomedies. While it shares many elements such as deceit, betrayal, disguises, and attempted murder found in similar works of the period, it lacks the brutality that characterizes these plays. Clever, terrifying, and disconcertingly amusing, this significant work by the great rebel genius of Jacobean theater is one of the most original plays of its time - complex in genre, structure, and language.

"The Malcontent was the sleeper hit of last summer's ClassicsFest," comments Antaeus artistic director Jeanie Hackett. "Audiences loved it. We knew right away that we wanted to do a full production."

The Malcontent ensemble cast includes JD Cullum and Bo Foxworth as Malevole; Bill Brochtrup and Mark Doerr as Pietro; John Achorn and Paul Willson as Bilioso; Ramon De Ocampo and Adrian LaTourelle as Mendoza; Laura Wernette and Jules Wilcox as Aurelia; Saundra McClain and Lynn Milgrim as Maquerelle; and Ann Noble and Devon Sorvari as Maria. Rounding out the cast are Alex Knox and Adam Meyer as Ferneze; John Allee and Jim Kane as Ferrardo/Mercury; Christopher Parsons as Equato/Captain; Blythe Auffarth and Marisol Ramirez as Bianca; Joe Fuhr and Jason Thomas as Prepasso/Page; Christopher Guilmet and Joe Holt as Celso; and Joanna Strapp and Abby Wilde as Emilia.

John Marston (1576-1634) is widely considered an important and influential dramatist and satirist of the Jacobean period, with The Malcontent regarded as his best-known work. One of the most significant plays of the English Renaissance, Marston's masterpiece (1604) was one of the first tragicomedies written in English. Often categorized as a revenge play, The Malcontent is a fabulous study of courtly intrigue, lust, and betrayal. A major reason for the play's preeminence lies in the balance it achieves between the opposite claims of laughter and horror and its scathing attack on the court of James I and the immorality of his courtiers. The play was first performed by the Children of the Chapel, one of the troupes of boy actors active in the era, in the Blackfriars Theatre. It was later taken over by the King's Men, the adult company for which William Shakespeare worked, and performed at The Globe Theatre. During the Restoration and through the 18th century, the play was unperformed, but revived in 1850 at the Olympic Theatre in London. Although Marston's career as a writer lasted only a decade, his work is remembered for its energetic and often obscure style, its contributions to the development of a distinctively Jacobean style in poetry, and its idiosyncratic vocabulary.

Elizabeth Swain's credits include acting in the Broadway productions of Charley's Aunt, Crown Matrimonial, and Sherlock Holmes (with the RSC). Recent directing credits include A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cal State, Long Beach); Macbeth (N.Y. State Theatre Institute); Master Harold and the Boys (Cape May Playhouse); Pam Gems' Camille; Stoppard's Arcadia; The Winter's Tale; an all-female Hamlet; two plays by Aphra Behn: The Rover and The Lucky Chance; and Susanna Centlivre's The Wonder. She also directed Biyi Bandele's adaptation of Aphra Behn's novel Oroonoko at the National Black Theatre in Harlem. For Antaeus: Medea (Classicsfest 2008); The Malcontent (Classicsfest 2010); reading of Richard II; and led Shakespeare text sessions on Richard II, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. Ms. Swain has taught at NYU, Hunter, CCNY, Barnard, and was on the faculty of Marymount Manhattan College until her recent relocation to the West Coast. Here she has taught for the Antaeus Academy and A Noise Within. She was a participant in the National Endowment for the Humanities 2002 summer institute, Shakespeare's Staging: Inside and Out, at the Blackfriars Theatre in Virginia and at Shakespeare's Globe in London and holds a doctorate from the City University of N.Y. She is an Associate Member of the Antaeus company.

The Antaeus Company strives to keep classical theater vibrantly alive by presenting professional productions with a top-flight ensemble company of actors. Taking their company name from the Titan who gained strength by touching the Earth, Antaeus members - many of whom are familiar to movie and television audiences - regain creative strength by returning to the wellspring of their craft: live theater performances of great classical plays. All Antaeus productions are fully double cast, with two equally talented actors sharing every role. This means that audiences never see an understudy and frequently come back to see each show a second time in order to see the same play in the hands of an equally excellent but very different set of actors. Members of the company and its board span a wide range of age, ethnicity and experience; they have performed on Broadway, at major regional theaters across the country, in film and television, and on local stages, and are the recipients of multiple accolades including Tony, Los Angeles and New York Drama Critics Circle, Ovation, LA Weekly, and Back Stage Garland nominations and awards.

Set Design for The Malcontent is by Tom Buderwitz; Lighting Design is by Elizabeth Harper; Costume Design is by A. Jeffrey Schoenberg; Sound Design is by Peter Bayne; Properties Design is by Heather Ho; and the Production Stage Manager is Richard Druther.

Performances of The Malcontent take place on on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays @ 8 pm and on Sundays @ 2:30 pm, except Sunday, May 8 which will be at 5 pm. Tickets are $30 on Thursdays and Fridays and $34 on Saturdays and Sundays, except opening weekend performances, which are $40 (May 5 & 6) and $75 (May 7 & 8) and include pre- and post-show receptions. Preview performances take place April 28 through May 4 on the same schedule; tickets to previews are $15.

The Antaeus Companyis located at 5112 Lankershim Blvd (inside Deaf West Theatre) in North Hollywood, CA 91601. Free parking is available in the uncovered Citibank lot on Lankershim Blvd. just south of Otsego St. The theater is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. For reservations and information, call (818) 506-1983 or go to www.antaeus.org.