NewsAmy Irving, Ruth Maleczcech Read Egloff's Phaedra for Off-Bway's Red Bull Troupe, Nov. 16Red Bull Theater, following its popular Off-Broadway run of Pericles earlier this year, launched its 2003-04 season Nov. 3 with "Revelation Readings," a reading series exploring new and modern language plays as well as neglected Jacobean works.
By
Kenneth Jones
November 04, 2003
Amy Irving
The jewel in the crown of the series will be Amy Irving and Ruth Maleczcech headlining a reading of Phedra by Elizabeth Egloff. The Nov. 16 Irving-Maleczech reading is a benefit for the company.
The series plays 7 PM and runs from November 3-18 at The Culture Project at 45 Bleecker. Admission is free. For reservations, call (212) 414-5168. For more information, go to redbulltheater.com.
The "Revelation Readings" began Nov. 3 with Don Jonny by Anton Dudley (Slag Heap) and Jonathan Spottiswoode (Spottiswoode & His Enemies). Inspired by the Don Juan of Moliére and Mozart, the "wild rock musical" was directed by Jesse Berger.
The schedule includes:
7 PM Nov. 4: A Mad World My Masters by Thomas Middleton, a "zany Jacobean farce [that] will have you howling with laughter," directed by Michael Barakiva.
7 PM Nov. 9: The Witch of Edmonton by Thomas Dekker, John Ford and William Rowley, "a Jacobean tragicomedy about the nature of evil" in "a rare and strikingly inventive hearing," directed by David Grimm, featuring Morgan Jenness as the Witch.
7 PM Nov. 11: Danton's Death by Georg Büchner, the play about the new world order, the French Revolution and idealism turning to terror, from Germany's experimental playwright. Christopher McCann directs.
7 PM Nov. 16: Phaedra by Elizabeth Egloff. A benefit reading for Red Bull starring Amy Irving and Ruth Maleczcech. Jesse Berger directs. A special wine reception with members of the RBT Company follows the reading. Admission is $20. Reservations are required. Call (212) 352-3101.
7 PM Nov. 18: Kean by Jean-Paul Sartre, "a fascinating modern play that dynamically probes the subject of appearances: the great Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean wreaks havoc in high society England." Directed by Eleanor Holdridge directs. In early 2004, Red Bull will produce a workshop staging of a new play by David Grimm (author of Kit Marlowe), Savages of Hartford. In the spring 2004, the company will open its second full production. Titles under consideration are The Revengers Tragedy, The Changeling, The Tempest and The Jew of Malta.
"Red Bull Theater is dedicated to the presentation of vital and imaginative productions of heightened language plays and to the development of new plays written in a similar vein," according to production notes. "With a special focus on the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Red Bull Theater aspires to challenge the intellect and engage the imagination of today's theatergoers through language-based, company-created, resonantly provocative stagings of great classic stories."
The troupe's inaugural production, Shakespeare's Pericles, was a critical and audience success. The Off-Broadway run was extended twice, playing seven weeks in 2003.
The production will include Bernstein’s incidental music for Lillian Hellman’s adaptation of The Lark, and Menotti’s The Unicorn, The Gorgon, and The Manticore.
