The young actor can currently be seen as Dr. Junju in the Academy Award-nominated film "The Last King of Scotland."
Directed and translated by James Kerr, Prometheus Bound is slated for a five-week limited engagement, March 13-April 14 at Off-Broadway's Classic Stage Company (136 East 13th Street). The official press opening is March 21 at 8 PM.
According to CSC and Aquila, "Prometheus Bound is one of the most powerful dramas in the Western canon. First staged by Aeschylus in Athens in the early 5th century B.C., this classic tragedy examines the elemental concepts of crime, punishment, power, and redemption. Set high in the Caucasus at the ends of the earth, Prometheus is chained to a rock with a bolt through his chest. Zeus has punished Prometheus, a defiant god with the gift of foresight, for giving the gift of fire to mortals and refusing to divulge a powerful secret – the name of one who would someday overthrow Zeus. Prometheus is a powerful symbol of the unbreakable spirit of the individual, defiant against the forces of tyranny."
James Kerr's Prometheus Bound was first seen in 2005 at the Sound Theatre in London.
David Oyelowo is a rising award-winning actor in the UK. Born in Oxford, the son of a Nigerian Prince, at the age of 24 he made history as the first black actor to play an English king (Henry VI) in a major production of Shakespeare for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He'll be Orlando in Kenneth Branagh's new film of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Oyelowo stars as Danny Hunter on the BAFTA award-winning BBC TV series "MI5," airing on A&E. James Kerr was born in Liverpool, England, and trained at University College London and London Academy AMDA. At London's Royal National Theatre he directed Rita Dove's Darker Face of the Earth, Andrea Dunbar's The Arbor, his own translation of Sophocles' Ajax, a new version of Don Juan, Sean O'Casey's Shadow of a Gunman, and Owen MacCafferty's Closing Time. Kerr has also directed his own translations of Aeschylus' Suppliants at the Gate Theatre.
The Aquila Theatre Company is based in New York City and presents innovative productions of classical drama. Recent works have included Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Comedy of Errors. Aquila's new productions of Greek drama have included Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Oedipus at Colonus with Bill Pullman, Homer's Iliad: Book One, and Aristophanes' Birds and Wasps. Aquila partners with major American theatres in the presentation of its work, and collaborates with notable artists from other disciplines including dance, music, opera and visual arts. Most recently, Aquila presented The Invisible Man with choreographer Doug Varone and Cherubini's Medee with the Manhattan Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. Aquila also conducts a year-round Shakespeare Education Program at the Frederick Douglas Academy in Harlem, supported by The Charles Hayden Foundation.
Prometheus Bound will play Tuesday-Saturday at 8 PM, with matinees Saturdays at 2 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets are $40 weekdays, $45 weekends and are available now online at www.classicstage.org or by calling (866) 811-4111, or in person at the CSC box office, Monday-Friday, 12-8 PM, and one hour prior to curtain on weekends.
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Now in its 39th season, Classic Stage Company is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre "committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience."
