Money, Portal, The Third Age at Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival

Excerpts from two plays that employ absurdist humor as they explore issues related to Eastern European transitions to democracy and one experimental stream of words, thoughts, and dialogues.Money, Portal, The Third Age (Czech Republic). Playwright: Dodo Gombar. Director: Edward Einhorn. Cast Money: Craig Anderson (Peter), Rolls Andre (Zdeno), Elizabeth Chappel (Milena), Nathanial Meek (Jojco), Max Wolkowitz (Mirec); The Third Age: Richard Toth (Dolina), Max Wolkowitz (Egon); Portal: Craig Anderson (First Speaker), Richard Toth (Second Speaker). Translated by: Lucie Kolouchova. Running time: 90 min.MONEY features a panopticon of peculiar characters (two pot smokers, a car dealer, a street musician, a dreamy bank security guard, and others) whose seemingly unrelated but certainly odd stories of attempts to do something with their lives meet at one point in a given time and space. Do something, something unexpectedrob a bank, cancel your engagement right before the wedding, or simply manage to have a conversation with your mother. But dont look back and dont mess up. THE THIRD AGE is a multigenerational dialogue, a bitter comic farce about life, relationships, and a will to live, about those who cannot escape their past or deal with life in the present. They cant quite figure it out. In a society that abruptly transitioned into freedom in 1989, expectations quickly lead to disillusions. Have people learned how to live in freedom? Or are they to be left instead living with hope that the next generation, the generation of the third age, will live a better life? PORTAL is an experimental text in between drama and poetry. Its twelve scenes offer extreme situations full of hidden emergencies and various metaphors. The performance consists of a disquieting stream of words, thoughts, and dialogues between anonymous characters. Spectators are encouraged to find meanings based on their imagination and intimate experiences.Dodo Gombars The Third Age was shortlisted for the best original play script for the Slovak Alfred Radok Playwriting Award in 2002.The reading is followed by Q&A. It is free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. The event will be broadcasted online, live on Zoom. RSVP is required to receive the Zoom link. RSVP online through Eventbrite.