Collektor Presents A LIE OF THE MIND at ACT, Opens 9/8

Collektor opens Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind in the Bullitt Cabaret space of ACT Theatre Thursday, September 8, 2011. This is the first production of the recently formed Production Company, Collektor, with Rob West serving as director and a talented cast of esteemed local designers and actors.

Etta Lilienthal (Production Design), Evan Ritter (Lighting Design) and Jennessa West (Wardrobe Design) come together to create a Western-American feel with a puzzle-piece set and worn red, white and blue tones. Live music from Sean Patrick Taylor's slide guitar and banjo rounds out the look and feel of the show. The cast includes: Sally Brady, Bruneau, Tim Gouran, Macall Gordon, Joe Ivy, Eric Riedmann, Ray Tagavilla, and Maggie Tatone.

A Lie of the Mind is Shepard's 1985 award-winning play which focuses on a married couple - Beth and Jake. As the play opens, we discover Jake (Ray Tagavilla) has badly beaten Beth (Aimeé Bruneau) and assumes he has left her for dead. Beth recovers from the beating in the hospital under the care of her brother Mike (Eric Riedmann). Jake and Beth then return to their families to recover from the event, but truth is never what it seems, and every character undergoes a transformation as the inevitable unfolding occurs.

"This production stands at the margins of reality, pressing softly or sometimes more forcefully through a thin membrane into a more fluid and poetic world, akin to a misremembered dream. All eight characters have moments of lucidity where each remembers pain or violence that they have caused or absorbed. It's haunting and strangely comedic," says Rob West.