- ABSURDIST SEASON 1999, JANUARY
- JULY 1999
- EXIT Theatre's 5th annual Absurdist Season, the only San Francisco theater season focusing entirely on classics and other works from absurdist theater, ran from January 29 through July 28, 1999 in San Francisco.
Montgomery, Marowitz, Ionesco, Beckett di Prima, Barnes, Shepard, Stoppard - EXIT Theatre's 5th annual Absurdist Season, the only San Francisco theater season focusing entirely on classics and other works from absurdist theater, ran from January 29 through July 28, 1999 in San Francisco.
- Absurdist Season 1999 presented four sets of plays running
simultaneously in EXIT Theatre and EXIT Stage Left. Opening January 29
and running five weekends was the deconstructed HAMLET
by Charles Marowitz opposite Robert Montgomery’s SUBJECT
TO FITS, a musical response to Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. The
season then switched to a format of Tuesday/ Wednesday productions matching
THE KILLING GAME by Eugene Ionesco against
HAPPY DAYS by Samuel Beckett from March
9 through March 31. Opening May 4 for four weeks of Tuesday/Wednesday productions
was MURDER CAKE & LIKE by the high priestess
of beat poetry Diane di Prima opposite TO THE DOGS & THE DOVE by the early 20th century modernist Djuna Barnes. The season
concluded with LA TURISTA by Sam Shepard and ALBERT’S BRIDGE
by Tom Stoppard from July 6 through July 28.
SUBJECT TO FITS by Robert Montgomery. A musical response to Dostoevsky's The Idiot. After years of isolation, a guileless young epileptic is thrust disastrously into the heart of a society obsessed with money, power and sexual conquest. This "play with music" is a brilliantly theatrical deconstruction of the classic tale of scandal, murder, madness, and innocence destroyed, developed by the creative team of John Sowle and Steven Patterson who directed last year's Gertrude Stein absurdist pieces.
HAMLET by Shakespeare adapted by Charles Marowitz. Shakespeare and absurdism join forces as Marowitz explores the classic play in an 80 minute collage format bringing Hamlet up to date for the 90's by experimenting with speed, fragmentation, and discontinuity. Charles Marowitz's Hamlet challenges the audience to look at the play through fresh eyes. This is not your high school class' Hamlet! Directed by Jonathan Gonzalez who directed Line in last year's season.
THE KILLING GAME by Eugene Ionesco. What would you do if a plague visited our city, killing everyone in sight? Ionesco holds a mirror to our society and creates a rich an deadly satire to answer this question with equal doses of insight and comic flair. Directed by Michelle Drager.
HAPPY DAYS by Samuel Beckett. Join Winnie & Willie, Beckett's eternal couple, for an unforgettable experience, a virtual picnic in the grass. What is that wonderful expression? "A jug of wine, a mound of dirt, and thou..." It's no wonder that Winnie exclaims, "Oh this is going to be another happy day!" Directed by Ugo Baldassari who staged the Bay Area premiere of this play in the early seventies.
MURDER CAKE & LIKE by Diane di Prima. Di Prima’s work spans fifty years, including over thirty books and thousands of poems. The dream plays Murder Cake and Like place di Prima's brillance as a beat poet on stage. By layering the plays voluptuous language with the inadvertant humor and inherent slapstick of every day life director Meredith Eldred brings together the ordinary and the fantastic. Murder Cake was first presented in 1960 by the Living Theatre. This will be the first full production of Like which was given a staged reading in 1964 by the New York Poets Theatre. Directed by Meredith Eldred who directed last year's Waiting for Godot.
TO THE DOGS & THE DOVE by Djuna Barnes. Two early short plays by the high priestess of high modernism. Notes Barnes scholar Ann Larabee of her early dramatic work, "Barnes purposely presented 'repulsive' women who resisted cultural indoctrination into heterosexual relationship and projected a dark wave of sensual violence. To The Dogs was part of the 1919-20 Provincetown Players season and The Dove was first presented at Smith College in 1926. Directed by Kerry Reid.
LA TURISTA by Sam Shepard. Written by a 23 year old Shepard in 1967, this absurdist allegory follows Kent and Salem through hotel rooms in both the U.S. and Mexico. When Kent succumbs to "la turista," a doctor comes to exorcise the disease. As treatment turns from witchcraft and decapitated roosters to platitudes and useless advice, Kent can no more cope with his predicament when cure becomes irrelevant. Directed by Val Hendrickson, whose adaption of Shepard's Suicide in Bb was the big hit in San Francisco nightclubs last season. Tickets $10 ($8 students, seniors & TBA members).
ALBERT'S BRIDGE by Tom Stoppard. If you build it... will they get to the other side? With a little word play from his early cannon, Stoppard takes a look at what goes down when a man is left alone to his own thoughts. Written as a radio play and winner of the Prix Italia in '68, this incarnation of Albert's Bridge will be staged by Jason Ries, director of last season's Mister, Mister.
EXIT Theatre and EXIT Stage Left
Celebrating its 16th year on the wild side of downtown San Francisco, EXIT
Theatre is an experimental theater with a bohemian cabaret atmosphere and
EXIT Stage Left is an adjacent alternative black box theater. EXIT Theatre
is also the producer of the annual San Francisco Fringe Festival (September
9-19, 1999.) EXIT Theatre and EXIT Stage Left are located at 156 Eddy Street
(between Mason and Taylor). There is adjacent parking and a short walk to
the cable car and major public transportation.
- EXIT THEATRE & EXIT STAGE LEFT
156 Eddy Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
BOX OFFICE: (415.673.3847)
EMAIL: mail@sffringe.org