PALACE WRECKERS Has Extended Through June 17

Central Works 2018 season's spring production Palace Wreckers written and directed by Gary Graves, has extended through June 17 Only (originally scheduled to close June 10). A "comic thriller," this Central Works Method play was described by the press at its opening as a journey where the "road to happiness is paved with laughter" and "the actors play everything in deadly earnest, with outsized emotions." Based on a Greek tragedy and turned into a contemporary comedy with the Central Works Method which brings together writer, actors and director at the very outset of the playwriting process. In a supportive workshop environment, group research and collective brainstorming contribute to the entire development of the script.

Palace Wreckers, Central Works 59th world premiere, is a "comic thriller." Based on the Oresteia by Aeschylus, the play that Hamlet echoes, in a way-but funny. An old house, once a stately mansion, stands out in the high deserts of Nevada. The old place is surrounded by a huge junkyard, a family owned auto-wrecking yard called Palace Wreckers. Oresteez, a prodigal son of sorts, returns home with his sister, Elektra. Their father has died, and the two estranged siblings want to reunite with their bereft mother. But there's a new man in the house. And Elektra soon begins to suspect it was foul play that put her beloved father in the grave. Elektra wants revenge! What's our prodigal son to do? Palace Wreckers features a cast that includes John Patrick Moore (member AEA), Regina Morones, Khary Moye and Jan Zvaifler. The production has stage management by Vanessa Ramos, costumes by Tammy Berlin, sound by Gregory Scharpen, and props by Debbie Shelley.

"We place a premium on comedy at Central Works. We know our audience craves comedy. Who wouldn't with things as they are these days?" says playwright and company Co-director, Graves. "We had a successful experience with last year's Edward King, a comedy based on Sophocles' masterpiece, Oedipus Rex, recasting the story in contemporary terms and finding the comedy in the horrific implications of that story. So I went back to the Greeks in an effort to follow-up that effort with an inquiry into another one of the oldest plays in the Western tradition, Aeschylus' Oresteia, the story of Orestes, and the awful cycle of revenge killings that play tells within a very troubled family. It's 'revenge comedy,' or maybe more of a 'comic thriller.' That seemed right up our alley at Central Works."

Tickets & info: 510.558.1381 or centralworks.org

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