Tristan and Yseult at Electric Company Theatre

Electric Company Theatre Moves Tristan and Yseult To The Muck

Medieval legend Tristan and Yseult has been told for millennia, from Wagner’s opera to the Kneehigh Theatre production that landed in Orange County at South Coast Rep in 2015. Electric Company Theatre, resident theatre company of The Muck, brings the Kneehigh script to life with an original production co-directed by Brian Johnson and Michael Polak June 2-24 in the palm-tree filled circular driveway of The Muck. The production will tell the famous love story as a moving company fills the driveway with furniture for the audience to sit in, as the tragic events unfold out of a moving truck.

Johnson spent a week last summer in Frome, England with the adaptor and director of the Kneehigh Theatre production, Emma Rice, in preparation for this production, learning her techniques of ensemble building and storytelling. Polak, who has choreographed the violence for all ECT productions, is an actor and fight director who teaches and directs in the Devised Theatre program at Cal State Fullerton. Together Johnson and Polak will devise this production with the 18 person cast, complete with live band.

The company includes Emily Porr as Yseult, Gabriel Liron as Tristan, Wesley Chavez as King Mark, Callie Prendiville Johnson as Whitehands, Bobby Gonzalez as Brangian, Jose Orozco as Frocin, TJ Rodriguez as Morholt, and Nathan Camacho, Dylan Magallanes, Eliane Moenho, Jonah Camacho, Tamara Powell, Kyle Hayes, Camille Vargas, Portia Hildebrand, Jordan Lockhart, Sophie Keaney, and Emily Taylor as ensemble members, with Taylor also choreographing.

Tristan and Yseult plays Monday-Wednesday June 2-24 at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center. Tickets are $40 plus fees and are available at electriccompanytheatre.org.