The Savages delayed, but now Amy Freed's Psychic Life will begin performances Oct. 29, with an opening Nov. 3. The Northwest premiere and start of the 30th anniversary season at Seattle's Empty Space Theatre had been moved from an Oct. 15 starting preview date. Leslie Swackhamer directs.
The Psychic Life of Savages takes a fictionalized look at poets modeled on Sylvia Plath, Ted Morgan, Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell, dissecting and celebrating the eccentricities of these persons Freed calls "absurd, fragile and magnificent animals." Produced by Washington DC's Woolly Mammoth Theatre in a mounting that won a 1995 Charles McArthur Award for outstanding new play, Savages also garnered the New York Arts Club's prestigious $10,000 Joseph Kesselring Award. Other plays by Freed include Freedomland, Still Warm and The Ghoul of Amherst.
Will Marchetti reprises his role as Dr. Robert Stoner, a part Freed originally wrote for him. Also in the cast are Empty Space regular Lori Larsen (Anne), Besty Schwartz (Sylvia), Eric Ray Anderson (Ted), Beth Andrisevic (Emily Dickinson/Vera), Ian Bell (Tito/Others) and Susanna Wilson (Kit Kat).
John McDermott designed the sets with Jeanne Arnold (costumes), Timothy Wratten (lighting) and Ron Geier (sound).
Single tickets are $26-$16 and available by calling the box office at (206) 547 7500. The Psychic Life of Savages runs Oct. 29-Dec. 5. Empty Space is on the web at http://www.emptyspace.org and located at 3509 Fremont North. The upcoming Empty Space season dates have not been altered. Included in 1999-2000 are two world premieres: Lauren Weedman's Amsterdam (March 1 25) and Jeffrey Hatcher's Hanging Lord Haw Haw (April 12 May 13). Also up are Louis Broome's Texarkana Waltz (Jan. 4-Feb. 13) and Augstin Daly's 1867 melodrama Under the Gaslight (May 31 July 1).
-- By Christine Ehrenand David Lefkowitz
