Donald Margulies (Dinner With Friends), Martin McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane) and Philip Glass (Einstein on the Beach) will make major premieres in 2000 at Seattle's A Contemporary Theatre.
Margulies will open the spring season with the world premiere of his adaptation of Sholom Asch's Yiddish drama, God Of Vengeance. Controversial when it first opened on Broadway in 1923, Vengeance is the story of Yankel, who struggles to preserve his daughter's innocence, values and religious faith in his upstairs rooms, even as he runs a brothel in their basement. Margulies moves the play's action from turn-of-the century Poland to 1920's New York City, where new world opportunities battle old world values. Gordon Edelstein directs the drama in the Falls Theatre from April 7-May 7.
Known for his dark sense of humor and wicked characters, Tony Award winner Martin McDonagh brings another batch of nastiness to America with the U.S. premiere of The Skull in Connemara. Mick Dowd, hired yearly to dig up the old bones in the cemetary to make room for the newly dead, comes under suspicion when the body he exhumes belongs to his dead wife. Rumors fly about his possible involvement in her sudden demise seven years earlier. Edelstein again directs, this time in the Allen Theatre for a run from July 21-Aug. 20.
Minimalism's best recognized voice, Philip Glass, unveils his newest musical theatre work, In The Penal Colony, Aug. 25-Sept. 24 with reknowned director JoAnne Akalitis at the helm. Penal Colony is based on the Franz Kafka short story and features a libretto by Rudolph Wurlitzer. This world premiere will be in the Falls Theatre.
Also scheduled for the season are: Lanford Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winner, Talley's Folly, is revived May 12-June 11 in the Allen Theatre. A director and cast have yet to be announced.
Lisa Kron comes to the Falls Theatre June 30-July 30 to take Seattle on her 2.5 Minute Ride. A solo piece, Kron takes the audience into her family home, onto roller coasters with her father, and from midnight grocery shopping to impromptu dress fittings in the middle of airports. Kron is an OBIE and Bessie Award winner.
Two A.C.T regulars, John Procaccino and R. Hamilton Wright will lead the revival of Neil Simon's classic, The Odd Couple, as Oscar Madison and Felix Unger Sept. 29-Oct. 29 in the Allen Theatre. Jeff Steizer directs.
For season subscriptions, call (206) 292-7676. A Contemporary Theatre is on the web at http://www.acttheatre.org.
-- By Christine Ehren
