The U.S. premiere of A Life in Three Acts will run through March 28. An official opening has been set for March 7.
The 90-minute work, featuring U.K. playwright Ravenhill and celebrated British gay rights activist Borne, is adapted from private conversations between the two artists and recreated live on stage.
According to press notes, "The performance is remarkably honest, and by turns humorous and angry. The story moves from Bourne’s post-war childhood to his first walk across Trafalgar Square in drag, accompanied by four gorgeous friends, to his seminal role in the formation of the Gay Liberation Front. He recalls his life in a drag commune, the creation of the groundbreaking BLOOLIPS company in London and New York, and more, to reveal an extraordinary portrait of an individual and a movement. To be sure, the work is not only a Bourne memoir, but, more broadly, a celebration of the momentous struggles and achievements of gay liberation."
The work was developed in collaboration with Sheila Corr, picture editor for History Today Magazine, who aided in providing visual documentation of Bourne's life and Britain's post-war gay liberation struggle.
Ravenhill most recently adapted Terry Pratchett's Nation, which is playing the National's Olivier Theatre. He made his U.S. debut with Shopping and Fucking and has also penned the plays Faust is Dead, Handbag, Some Explicit Polaroids, Mother Clap’s Molly House (National Theatre/West End), Totally Over You (National Theatre), Product (Royal Court Theatre), The Cut (Donmar), Citizenship (National Theatre), Pool (No Water) (Lyric Hammersmith) and Dick Whittington & His Cat (Barbican Theatre). Bourne is the founder of the Obie Award-winning queer theatre company BLOOLIPS. He has appeared in Ravenhill's Ripper, as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, as Quentin Crisp in Resident Alien (New York Theatre Workshop), Sarrasine, Pericles (Lyric Hammersmith), Much Ado About Nothing (RSC), Theatre of Blood (Improbable/National Theatre), and The Vortex (Donmar Warehouse).
For further information phone (718) 254-8779 or visit artsatstanns.org.
St. Ann's Warehouse is located at 38 Water Street (between Main and Dock St.) in Brooklyn, NY.
