Martha Plimpton, Samantha Soule and More to Read Killing Swans at Rattlestick

By Ernio Hernandez
08 Oct 2009

Martha Plimpton
Martha Plimpton
Photo by Aubrey Reuben

Martha Plimpton will be among the cast of a free reading of Kara Manning's Killing Swans Oct. 10 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.

Rattlestick continues its Evening Reading Series with the new work. Ethan McSweeny (Gore Vidal's The Best Man, 100 Saints You Should Know) directs the 7 PM reading.

Tony Award nominee Plimpton (Pal Joey, The Coast of Utopia) will be joined in the cast by Brennan Brown, Peter Gerety, Adam Rothenberg and Samantha Soule. (Soule currently appears in Rattlestick's run of Killers and Other Family.)

Killing Swans, according to Rattlestick, centers on "a young [newly engaged] British couple [who] gamble on a getaway to a quaint Tuscan villa at the invitation of its curious American owners, only to find themselves embroiled in a deadly game with no exit strategy in sight. Earthquakes roil, inertia creeps, saints sin and smoking kills in this dark, romantic dramedy with bruschetta... and a body count."

The Evening Reading Series previously presented Steven Drukman's The Innocents Oct. 6. Craig Lucas directed a cast that featured Josh Hamilton, Amy Landecker, Seth Numrich and Ben Rappaport.

Playwright Manning, a 2007 Princess Grace Award winner, has also penned the plays afterdark, Sleeping Rough, Global Cooling: The Women Chill and Mind the Gap.

The reading of Killing Swans is free; reservations can be made by emailing literary@rattlestick.org. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is located at 224 Waverly Place in New York City. For more information, visit rattlestick.org .