The Jungle Theatre Charts A Summer Cruise With SHIPWRECKED!, Runs 5/22 - 6/28

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies’ wonderfully entertaining new play explores the seductive power of the tall tale and the desperate need that drives the taleteller. Flying wombats,
giant sea turtles, and a monstrous man-eating octopus all add up to hijinks and adventure—Jungle-style! “What does a man leave behind but his name and the story he told?” Sail away with us on a theatrical adventure into the wilderness that lies between truth and fiction!

Shipwrecked! is inspired by the true story of Louis de Rougemont, a man whose exploits transfixed Victorian England—and subsequently the world. Louis claimed to have survived, among many other travails, a spectacular shipwreck in the South Seas, an attack by a giant octopus and 30 years among a tribe of cannibals. His serialized story made him famous, a celebrity author not unlike the Oprah Winfrey-anointed memoirist James Frey, whose veracity (like Frey's) was ultimately called into question. Louis’ story began to unravel when various anthropologists and oceanographers accused him of fabrication, and he was publicly disgraced. Shipwrecked! examines how far one is willing to blur the line between fact and fiction in order to leave a mark on
the world.

The Jungle’s production of Shipwrecked! will celebrate theatrical story-telling in all its glory, using live sound effects, miniatures, shadow puppetry and other conventions of antique Victorian stagecraft in telling Louis de Rougemont’s amazing tale of bravery, survival and the quest for fame.

Shipwrecked! is directed by Joel sass and will run from May 22 - June 28. It features Michael Booth, Emily Gunyou-Halaas, Stephen Cartmell, and Edwin Strout.

Shipwrecked! is a late-season replacement for the Jungle's previously scheduled production of Around the World in 80 Days. According to Sass, "In a nutshell, we're just moving from one Victorian adventure tale to another! The two shows share some similarities, but the fact that Shipwrecked! is based on a real-life character raises it to a higher level of consideration artistically. I'm also a fan of the playwright, Donald Margulies...Amazingly, we're able to use the exact same cast - and because there are storms at sea, I'll get to throw buckets of water at them!"

All tickets purchased to Around The World in 80 Days will be honored.

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