The New 42nd Street Presents LOVE IS MY SIN

For its third show of its 30th anniversary season, Theatre for a New Audience will present the New York premiere of C.I.C.T. / Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord production of Love Is My Sin, the sonnets of William Shakespeare adapted by Peter Brook and performed by his wife, Natasha Parry and Michael Pennington.

Love Is My Sin, in which two lovers trace a magnificent, life-embracing arc of jealousy, guilt, adoration and anguish in Shakespeare's sonnets, begins previews Thursday, March 25, at 8:00pm, opens Thursday, April 1, at 7:00pm for a run through April 17 at The Duke on 42nd StreetSM, a New 42nd Street® project, 229 West 42nd Street.

Franck Krawczyk plays the music of Louis Couperin (1626-1661) on keyboard and accordion. Lighting is designed by Philippe Vialatte.

Last season, Peter Brook directed the C.I.C.T./ Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord's production of The Grand Inquisitor featuring Bruce Myers adapted from Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov by Marie-Hél ne Estienne. The production was presented by Theatre for a New Audience and New York Theatre Workshop.

Love Is My Sin premiered in Paris at Bouffes du Nord April, 2009. The first series of performances were played by Natasha Parry and Bruce Myers. Subsequent to an engagement for Bruce Myers at the National Theatre in London a second successful European tour brought the outstanding Shakespeare actor Michael Pennington into the cast. We are very happy to announce that it is this fine actor Michael Pennington well known to American audiences who will be playing with Natasha Parry at The Duke on 42nd StreetSM.

Love Is My Sin features thirty-one sonnets chosen by Mr. Brook. To quote from Peter Brook: "To choose between 154 sonnets, I needed to find a dramatic continuity and was guided by the hidden tensions that arise in a relationship between two people. Love Is My Sin allows us to penetrate into Shakespeare's own, most secret life. It is his private diary, in which we find his intimate questions, his jealousy, his passions, his guilt, his despair. Above all, he searches to discover for himself the deep meaning of being attracted by a man, by a woman or even by the act of writing itself. This is neither a play nor a poetry recital. It catches the actors in human relationships. Then, at the very end, they become speakers for Shakespeare himself who wrote prophetically that his verse is stronger than time and will last forever."

Peter Brook
Peter Brook was born in London in 1925. He directed his first play there in 1943. He then went on to direct over 70 productions in London, Paris, and New York. His work with the Royal Shakespeare Company includes Love's Labour's Lost (1946), Measure for Measure (1950), Titus Andronicus (1955), King Lear (1962), Marat/Sade (1964), US (1966), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970) and Antony and Cleopatra (1978).

In 1971, he founded the International Centre for Theatre Research in Paris and in 1974, opened its permanent base in Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. There, he directed Timon of Athens, The Ik, Ubu aux Bouffes, Conference of the Birds, L'O's, The Cherry Orchard, The Mahabharata, Woza Albert!, The Tempest, The Man Who, Qui est l ?, Ô! les Beaux Jours, Je suis un Phénom ne, Le Costume, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Far Away, La Mort de Krishna, Ta Main dans la Mienne, Tierno Bokar, Sizwe Banzi est mort and Fragments - many of these performing in both French and English.

In opera, he directed La Boh me, Boris Godounov, The Olympians, Salomé and Le Nozze de Figaro at Covent Garden; Faust and Eugene Onegin at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York; La Tragédie de Carmen and Impressions of Pelleas, at the Bouffes du Nord, Paris and Don Giovanni for Aix en Provence Festival.

Mr. Brook's autobiography, Threads of Time, was published in 1998 and joins other titles including The Empty Space (1968) - translated into over 15 languages, The Shifting Point (1987), Evoking (and Forgetting) Shakespeare (2002), and There are No Secrets (1993).

His films include Lord of the Flies, Marat/Sade, King Lear, Moderato Cantabile, The Mahabharata and Meetings with Remarkable Men.

Natasha Parry
Natasha Parry's stage debut was at the age of 12 when she was chosen by Michael Redgrave from the Arts Educational theatre school to appear in Wingless Victory by Maxwell Anderson at The Phoenix Theatre, London. She was 14 when she first played Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night's Dream with John Gielgud and Peggy Ashcroft at the Royal Haymarket Theatre, London.

She has acted in theatre, cinema and television with actors and directors including Alec Guiness, John Mills, Orson Wells and with Rex Harrison on Broadway. She was one of the original members of Peter Brook's International Centre of Theatre Research. They performed an experimental Tempest at the Round House in London, before continuing their work in Paris, later travelling to Africa, Iran, Australia and the U.S. performing Orghast, Timon of Athens, The Ik and Conference of the Birds.

She returned to England to play in A Streetcar Named Desire and at the RSC's Stratford and London bases Hippolytus, Measure for Measure and Children of the Sun by Maxim Gorki, directed by Terry Hands.

Later, Peter Brook directed her in The Cherry Orchard with Michel Piccoli, Tchin Tchin opposite Marcello Mastroianni, Beckett's Happy Days in French, which she performed over 350 times in Paris, followed by a worldwide tour, including London at the Riverside Studios and in 2001, she played in Brook's The Tragedy of Hamlet at the Bouffes du Nord which came to the Young Vic during its world tour. She played in London, opposite Michel Piccoli, in Peter Brook's production of Ta Main dans la Mienne.

Natasha Parry's work with other directors in Paris includes The Night of the Iguana, Kabale et Amour, Richard III and Maurice Bejart's production of Mishima's 5 Modern Noh plays.

In London, she has notably played Clytemnestra in Deborah Warner's Electra at the RSC, in Declan Donnellan's Hamlet, Mme de Sade at the Almeida and Brian Cox's production of Mrs Warren's Profession at the Orange Tree.

Her films include Monsieur Ripois (U.S title Knave of Hearts) by René Clement, with Gérard Philipe, Midnight Lace made in Hollywood with Doris Day, Franco Zefirelli's Romeo and Juliet, Peter Brook's Meetings with Remarkable Men, La Fille Prodique by Jacques Doillon and Le Lit by Marion Hansel.

Michael Pennington
Born to a Scottish mother and a Welsh father, Michael Pennington grew up in London. He first played Hamlet and Troilus at Cambridge University and was then invited to join the RSC. For them in later years he played the title roles in Hamlet, Timon of Athens and Hippolytus, Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost, Angelo in Measure for Measure, Donal in Shadow of a Gunman, Mirabell in The Way of the World, and the Narrator in Venus and Adonis.

He was also co-founder and Joint Artistic Director of the English Shakespeare Company from 1985 to 1992, playing the title roles in Coriolanus, Henry V, Macbeth and Richard II, and Leontes in The Winter's Tale.

Other UK theatre credits include: Charles Dickens in Little Nell, Robert Maxwell in The Bargain, Nathan in Nathan the Wise, Archie Rice in The Entertainer, title role in John Gabriel Borkman, title role in The Madness of George III, Major Arnold in Taking Sides, Walter Burns in The Front Page, Dorn in The Seagull, Dr Prentice in What the Butler Saw, Oscar Wilde in Gross Indecency, Alceste in The Misanthrope, Domenico in Filumena, Henry Trebell in Waste, Sir John Brute in The Provok'd Wife, Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, Edward Damson in The Gift of the Gorgon, Claudius in Hamlet, Deeley in Old Times, the title role in The Guardsman, Jaffier in Venice Preserved and the title role in Strider.

His current work includes two solo shows: Anton Chekhov (National Theatre and International touring) and Sweet William (on Shakespeare - West End and US tour). He has recently finished playing Richard Strauss in Collaboration and Wilhelm Furtwängler in Taking Sides in London's West End.

Michael Pennington's published writing includes User's Guides to Hamlet, Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night's Dream; Are You There Crocodile - Inventing Anton Chekhov; and Sweet William (in preparation).

He was the British Academy Shakespeare Lecturer in 2004.

Box Office
Tickets are $75 and may be purchased via phone at 646-223-3010 or via the web at beginning Monday, February 8, 2010.

For ages 25 and under, $10.00 New Deal tickets may be purchased in advance for any performance by using the code "NWDL1568" online, over the phone at 646-223-3010 or during box office hours at The Duke on 42nd StreetSM. New Deal tickets are sold on a first come, first serve basis along with all other tickets. There are no restrictions on the number of New Deal tickets available for each performance, but there is a limit of 2 that can be purchased via the phone or online. Valid ID listing proof of age must be shown for each New Deal ticket purchased; failure to show proof of age will result in a surcharge for a full-price ticket.

About the organization: The New 42nd Street®
Founded in 1990, The New 42nd Street is an independent, nonprofit organization charged with long-term responsibility for seven historic theaters on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. In addition to running The New Victory®, The New 42nd Street built and operates the New 42nd Street Studios - a ten-story building of rehearsal studios, offices and a 199-seat theater named The Duke on 42nd StreetSM - for national and international performing arts companies. Since its opening on June 21, 2000, the New 42nd Street Studios has been fully occupied by both nonprofit and commercial theater, dance and opera companies. With these institutions and the other properties under its guardianship, The New 42nd Street plays a pivotal role in fostering the continued revival of this famous street at the Crossroads of the World.

About the theater: The Duke on 42nd StreetSM
The Duke on 42nd StreetSM is an intimate 200-seat black box theater built and operated by The New 42nd Street. Since opening in 2000, the theater has been available to international and domestic nonprofit organizations to present their work. Companies that have presented at The Duke on 42nd Street include: 92nd Street Y's Harkness Dance Project; The NYC Tap Festival; Rosie's Broadway Kids; Playwrights Horizons; London's National Theatre; Theatre for a New Audience, which continues to present work on a regular basis; Lincoln Center's LCT3, which is in its second season, and The New 42nd Street's "New Victory at The Duke" series. Companies presented by The New 42nd Street have included: Karole Armitage; Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Naked Angels, The Classical Theatre of Harlem, and Steppenwolf Theater Company ("New Vic at The Duke" series).