CHICAGO -- Goodman Theatre has announced a postponement of its announced production of Anna Deavere Smith's new play, House Arrest, which was to have been presented in association with Seattle's Intiman Theatre.
The play, which premiered last November at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in a co-production with three other theaters (including Goodman), explores national identity as embodied by the American presidency -- past and present.
House Arrest is clearly a work in progress. According to Smith, "This Greek drama which is being played out in Washington right now speaks to the heart of what House Arrest is all about."
Accordingly, Smith, who attended Clinton's State of the Union Adress, will continue working on the play, resarching it and workshopping it at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A. later this spring. "I need to observe and understand this complicated new chapter in our history and see how it will inform my work." So do we all.
-- By Lawrence Bommer
Chicago Correspondent