Touchstone Thetare Presents THE LOST ONES, 11/18-21

For one weekend in November, Touchstone hosts Spooky Action Theater and their production of The Lost Ones, a prose text by Samuel Beckett adapted for the stage. The show will perform November 18-21, 2010.

First staged as a theatrical production by Mabou Mines in 1974, The Lost Ones is a reimagining and restaging of a short story by Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett. This rarely seen story, Le dépeupleur, transports the audience to a world stripped of time and space, another dimension entirely.

Spooky Action, a troupe based in Washington, DC, brings this story to life through actor Carter Jahncke, an actor/puppeteer who serves as guide, narrator, and storyteller. Assisted by 60 tiny puppets, exploring the labyrinth of the heart and mind, Jahncke stages this story in miniature under the direction of Richard Henrich, a Beckett scholar and Yale graduate. This is the duo's second successful partnership on a Beckett performance; The Lost Ones is performed with special permission from the Estate of Samuel Beckett.

They describe the setting for the play as "A universe in a closed cylinder. A little people of lost ones, endlessly turning in a fascinating dance [...] searching out where dreams and consciousness itself are born."

Spooky Action presented this staging of the text for the Capital Fringe Festival last year. The production received rave reviews, praising Jahncke's painstakingly intense rapport with the characters and masterful command of the text, as well as Henrich's haunting directorial vision. "A production that jointly startles, titillates, and terrifies character and audience," says the Washington City Paper. "A realization, rather than recitation, of Beckett's vision."

In bringing the production to Touchstone Theatre, Spooky Action has re-envisioned use of the theatrical space and will be constructing three-quarter round seating on Touchstone's stage, for an audience that will surround and form the boundaries of the show.

The Lost Ones runs from Thursday November 18 through Sunday November 21. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday shows start at 8:00 pm, with a Sunday matinee at 2:00 pm. Regular admission is $25, with $15 tickets available to students and seniors; group rates available. Thursday night, Touchstone offers "pay what you will at the door," where audience members who buy their tickets at the theatre that night may name their own purchase price. Other tickets may be purchased by phone at 610-867-1689, or online at www.lvartsboxoffice.org.