Obie winner Jared Harris and The Price's Lizabeth Mackay lead the cast of the Vineyard Theatre's More Lies About Jerzy, opening Jan. 21. Performances began Jan. 5 for a run through Feb. 11.
An Obie winner for Ecstasy, Harris has starred in several films, portraying Andy Warhol in "I Shot Andy Warhol" and "54" and Vlad in "Happiness." He takes the title role in Jerzy, that of a writer accussed of making up his own Holocaust memoir.
Mackay most recently appeared on Broadway in The Price - her other credits on the Great White Way include The Heiress, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Death and the Maiden and Crimes of the Heart for which she won a Theatre World Award.
Also in the cast are Gretchen Egolf (Christian Onassis in Jackie), Daniel London, Boris McGiver, Betty Miller, Portia Reiners, Martin Shakar, Adam Stein and Gary Wilmes.
Davey Holmes, author of Jerzy, is co-writer on the film "Green," directed by Christopher Renshaw and set to film in fall 2000. Vassar College held a reading of Jerzy in June, but the Vineyard staging of the play will be the first time Holmes has been produced in a theatre. More Lies About Jerzy bears some similarities to the real life story of Jerzy Kosinski, the Polish writer who was discovered to have plagiarized old Polish texts and used editorial assistants to write his works. He was also known for his flamboyant lies and three books, the National Book Award winner "Steps," "Being There" and "The Painted Bird," a mythic novel of a mute child growing up in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe.
Darko Tresnjak directs. A Williamstown Theatre Festival and opera vet, his productions have included Princess Turandot, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Skin of Our Teeth and the Blue Light Theatre Company's Hotel Universe.
Tickets are $45. For ticket information on the Vineyard Theatre, call (212) 353-3366. The Vineyard is located at 108 E. 15th Street.
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More Lies About Jerzy was originally set to run in the spring with The Laura Nyro Project (formerly Soul Picnic) taking the winter slot. The two productions have flip-flopped, however, and Jerzy's tale of an author's Holocaust memoir called into question for accuracy and truth premieres first on the theatre's mainstage.
— By Christine Ehren
