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KIMBERLY AKIMBODavid Lindsay-Abaire |
SEP 24 - OCT 24 |
| A few years ago, I had the pleasure of spending time with playwright Christopher Durang (Betty's Summer Vacation, The Marriage of Bette and Boo). I shared with him some of 2nd Story's experience with his plays. I told him how his work stimulated our audience and challenged our actors. It was hard to imagine how those wildly funny, outrageous comedies came out of the sweet, mild-mannered, polite man sitting on the other side of the café table. During our chat, Chris suggested that if I was drawn to his plays, I should look into the work of a former student of his, David Lindsay-Abaire. That conversation led to our production a short time later of the uniquely funny Fuddy Meers. Lindsay-Abaire's absurdist sensibility and his irreverent humor are indeed reminiscent of Durang's work. But this ingenious young playwright has an episodic, flight-of-fancy story-telling style all his own. So, this season, I am pleased to bring you David Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly Akimbo, a wild ride of a play set in the wasteland of suburban New Jersey. It's a hysterical and heartrending play about a teenager with a rare condition causing her body to age faster than it should. When she and her family flee Secaucus under dubious circumstances, Kimberly is forced to reevaluate her life while contending with a hypochondriac mother, a rarely sober father, a scam-artist aunt, her own mortality and, most terrifying of all, the possibility of first love. This haunting, hilarious and totally charming dark comedy gives a whole new meaning to 'coming of age story'. And while howlingly funny, Kimberly Akimbo is, in the end, a loving study of how time wounds everyone. It's the perfect kick-off for a perfect season. So that's #1. Stay tuned for #2. Ed |
SCHOOL FOR WIVESMoliÈre |
NOV 12 - DEC 12 |
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As I explained in an earlier email, the season will include five comedies -- with teeth. We'll alternate between quirky modern and enduring classics. The best of both worlds. So, in keeping with that plan, we'll follow David Lindsay-Abaire's uniquely offbeat Kimberly Akimbo (2000) with Molière's perennial favorite, School for Wives (1662). With Wives, Molière becomes 2nd Story's most produced (and popular) playwright. In seasons past, The Learned Ladies, Tartuffe and The Misanthrope were all enormous successes; each performance was a veritable party. The appeal of the rhyming verse, the mercurial shifts from the sacred to the profane, the soaring poetry and the base humor, all help make Moliere's comedies as fresh today as when they were first written. Richard Wilbur's magnificent translations capture the hysterically lyrical (or is it lyrically hysterical?) roller-coaster ride that is Moliere. Now, to all those for whom Molière's timeless classic is -- pardon the pun -- virgin territory, you're in for a treat. And for those who think they've seen it before, think again. There's always room for invention with Moliere: Remember our Misanthrope in hoop-skirts? Our shag-carpeted, love-beaded Tartuffe? As I look back at the more than fifty full-length plays we've done in the last decade, Molière's classic comedies have been among the most enjoyable, challenging and creatively satisfying of all. I can't wait to tackle School for Wives; I'm sure it will live up to (and perhaps exceed) the reputation of its predecessors. It might just be -- pardon my French -- le pièce de resistance! Hmmm. La pièce de resistance?? Oui? Non? Ah, well. Vive la comedie, eh? So that's #2. Stay tuned for #3. Best, Ed |
TO BE ANNOUNCED |
JAN 21 - FEB 20 |
TO BE ANNOUNCED |
MAR 11 - APR 10 |
TO BE ANNOUNCED |
APR 29 - MAY 29 |