Film and stage star Martha Plimpton takes the female lead in Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of John Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, which officially opens July 12. She plays Pegeen Mike, the Irish lass who falls for the title rogue.
Plimpton has appeared in such films as Running on Empty, Another Woman, Parenthood, and I Shot Andy Warhol. New York stage productions include Pericles at the Public Theatre.
Jim True plays the title role, a young man who gains fleeting fame when he reveals his belief that he has slain his father. True has previously enjoyed noted success in another Irish play, Brian Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come!, which was produced at New York's Roundabout Theatre Company in 1994. True was most recently seen on Broadway as Vince in Steppenwolf's lauded 1996 revival of Sam Shepard's Buried Child. True is a member of the Steppenwolf ensemble. Douglas Hughes will direct the Synge play.
The production began previews at Steppenwolf July 3 for a run through Aug. 23. The play will then travel in the fall to open the 1998-99 season at the Long Wharf Theatre, where Hughes is artistic director. It is not certain whether True or Plimpton will appear in the New Haven production. No specific dates have been announced for the Long Wharf engagement.
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