Cycling Past the Matterhorn, World Premiere About Mum and Daughter, Plays Fringe Aug. 9-23 | Playbill

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News Cycling Past the Matterhorn, World Premiere About Mum and Daughter, Plays Fringe Aug. 9-23 A mediocre psychic and her cycling-fanatic mother are at the center of the world premiere of Deborah Grimberg's Cycling Past the Matterhorn, presented by Glovebox Productions in the New York International Fringe Festival.

The comedy, Aug. 9-23 at The Play Room, is set in contemporary London.

"Amy is a young British psychic who spends her days forecasting the troubled lives of your general miserable British public," playwright Grimberg told Playbill On-Line. "She's parked her stall outside Camden tube station and can spot a good lifeline for a tenner — tipping is optional. Life for our young heroine will always be a challenge because — as her mother so reassuringly puts it — she was delivered with forceps."

The play is billed as "a fast paced comedy about Amy and her mother Esther, who at 56 has been left by her husband and has just discovered she is going blind. These events become a catalyst for both women as the audience watches Esther forge ahead with life — 'If Stevie Wonder can do it than so can I!' And there in lies Esther's adventure. She will cycle past the Matterhorn."

Ultimately, Esther's journey to Switzerland "is a metaphor for all our lives," Grimberg said. "This is a play about seizing the day and for us to see our own Matterhorns and not to cycle past them."

Grimberg explained, "I wanted to write a play about how we all can be guilty of shuffling through life with our blinkers on. We stop really 'seeing' the world and our actions or motives can often be fueled by fear or shame rather than by desire or passion. So that's where the Matterhorn comes in — such an overwhelming, imposing, ageless force of nature and yet perhaps if we're not careful we can all cycle past it without even knowing." British playwright Grimberg has lived and worked in Israel and Australia and is now settled in New York City. In June 2000, Cycling Past the Matterhorn was awarded the Sherrill C. Corwin Award and the Metropolitan Theatre Award. Her play, The Honey Makers, was produced in The Ensemble Studio Theatre's One-Act Marathon, where she won the James Hammerstein Award for emerging playwright.

Ning Bhanbhassa directs a cast that includes Don Fowler, Nina Jacques, Caitlin Loesch-Jones, Kathleen Peirce and Susan Wallack.

Tickets are $15. The Play Room is at 440 Lafayette Street, third floor, Lafayette Street at Astor Place. For tickets, call (212) 279-4488. Fringe shows are presented at scattered times and days. For more information, visit www.cyclingpastthematterhorn.com. The Fringe runs Aug. 8-24.

 
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