THEATER TALK to Feature Simon McBurney and Christopher Hampton

This week on THEATER TALK, it's two inspired British theatrical artists on Broadway - first, Simon McBurney, the creator and performer in the acclaimed theatrical experience, The Encounter, followed by Christopher Hampton, dramatist of the 1782 book by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

McBurney's show, now at the Golden Theatre, is, on its surface, a one-man show - but audiences leave the theater with an altered sense of reality. McBurney has based his show on the journey of a National Geographic photographer to a remote area of the Amazon jungle, where he gets lost, nearly gets killed and temporarily goes mad. Featuring an extraordinary techno-aural environment, in addition to McBurney's powerful performance, the show is a fascinating and involving meditation on memory, identity, and consciousness itself.

In the second half of the episode, the guest is playwright Hampton, who charts the early progression from book to play of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, which he first read at age 19 - "It's the best sex education a boy could hope for." The story of two bored, extremely rich 18th-century aristocrats, now played by Janet McTeer and Liev Schreiber at the Booth Theatre, who amuse themselves by corrupting other people, originally starred Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan in 1986. It was then made into a hit film (which won Hampton a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar), and is now being revived in this production imported from London's Donmar Warehouse. Hampton says, in the 1980s, the play resonated with the "me generation...[and] now it's about the One Percent."

This week's episode of THEATER TALK premieres Friday, Nov. 4 (2016) on PBS station Thirteen/WNET at 1:30 AM (Saturday morning) and repeats there on Sunday 11/6 at 11:30 AM; it reairs on CUNY TV* Saturday 11/5 at 8:30 PM, Sunday 11/6 at 12:30 PM, and Monday 11/7 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM, and 7:30 PM; and also airs on WLIW/21 on Monday 11/7 at 5:30 PM and on WNYE/25 on Thursday 11/10 at 11 PM.

THEATER TALK is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The CUNY TV Foundation, and The Friends of THEATER TALK.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast in the NYC metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3 and cablecast in the city's five boroughs on Ch. 75 (Time Warner & Optimum Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). THEATER TALK episodes are available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes.

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