Shirley Knight, Alison Fraser, Sam Underwood Star in In Masks Outrageous and Austere, Opening April 16 | Playbill

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News Shirley Knight, Alison Fraser, Sam Underwood Star in In Masks Outrageous and Austere, Opening April 16 Producers Victor Syrmis and Carl Rumbaugh, along with Culture Project (Allan Buchman, artistic director) present the world premiere of In Masks Outrageous and Austere, the final full-length play from Pulitzer Prize winner Tennessee Williams, which officially opens April 16 at 7 PM following previews that began April 6 at Culture Project at 45 Bleecker at Lafayette Street.

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Sam Underwood and Robert Beitzel Photo by Carol Rosegg

Directed by David Schweizer, the production will continue through May 26.

The cast is headed by Tony winner Shirley Knight, who plays the role of Babe Foxworth, with Scot Charles Anderson, Kaolin Bass, Robert Beitzel, Connor Buckley, Alison Fraser, Christopher Halladay, Ward Horton, Jonathan Kim, Jermaine Miles, Pamela Shaw and Sam Underwood.

With In Masks Outrageous and Austere, Tennessee Williams, according to Culture Project, continues to "explore the passionate obsessions that made him famous in the early masterworks — the impenetrability of the human heart, the futility and hypocrisy of denying or displacing physical attraction, the power of love and its tyranny—while employing the dramaturgical freedom and aesthetic daring he discovered in his later plays. And all of this he does with the provocative wit and lyricism that was his hallmark."

"Masks is a sublimely haunting piece of theatre and feels almost uncanny in its expressiveness as Tennessee's farewell piece," added director Schweizer. "There are utterly surprising, surreal theatrical gestures here, but also a deeply rooted, passionate sense of yearning that only he can evoke in the theatre. I knew Tennessee when I was a young man and he was exactly the age that I am now, and I feel privileged to bring this astonishing work in all of its explosive theatricality, to the stage."

The creative team comprises Jim Noone (set design), Gabriel Berry (costume design), Alexander V. Nichols (lighting design), Dan Moses Schreier (sound design), Darrel Maloney (projections and visual effects) and Joe E. Jeffreys (dramaturg). Shirley Knight won a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress in a Play for Kennedy's Children and was nominated for a Best Actress Tony for The Young Man From Atlanta. She was Oscar-nominated for "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs" and "Sweet Bird of Youth."

Read more about Tennessee Williams in the Playbill Vault.

Tickets are $75 for Tuesday-Friday performances and $85 for Saturday and Sunday performances. They may be obtained by calling (866) 811-4111 or by visiting www.cultureproject.org.

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Robert Beitzel, Shirley Knight and Sam Underwood Photo by Carol Rosegg
 
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