By Sheila Callaghan
Directed by Jenny McConnell Frederick
July 16 - August 16, 2009
"Gorgeously realized... tends to challenge six different theatrical conventions before the first act break."
-- Washington City Paper
"DEAD CITY, a spin on James Joyce's ULYSSES, is so packed with crafty parallels to that 1922 novel that it might prompt a convention of English professors to stand up and cheer... from Rachel Beauregard's expressive performance as Jewel, a now-rapt, now-bleary-eyed punk poet, to scenic designer Eric Grims's panorama of nighttime skyscrapers... fluidly directed by Jenny McConnell Frederick... deliciously zany humor and surreal aesthetic."
-- Washington Post
On June 16, 2004 (the 100th anniversary of
the day Bloom and Dedalus wandered Joyce's Dublin), Samantha Blossom’s odyssey begins over breakfast when she discovers a letter from her husband’s lover. Reacting to the sting of her husband’s infidelity and from the pain of her son’s death, she embarks on a surreal journey in which she encounters a Manhattan she has never seen. Her life starts to spiral out of control and she becomes caught up in the wake of a punk-rock poet half her age. What begins as a chance encounter turns into obsession as she follows this young girl through the streets of her weird and wonderful city, ending in an underground sex club in the Meat Packing District where anything is possible.
This dark, hip and ultra-theatrical reimagining of James Joyce’s Ulysses reverses the genders of the main characters and updates the landscape to a mind-bending Manhattan. Sheila Callaghan’s distinctive style makes the mundane electric and turns conversation into poetry.
Washington DC has become a home for Sheila Callaghan’s work. WE ARE NOT THESE HANDS and CRUMBLE (LAY ME DOWN JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE) were both recently produced at Catalyst Theater, TUMOR was performed at last year’s Source Festival and FEVER/DREAM will premiere at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in June.
PRODUCED BY Jenny McConnell Frederick and Randy Baker
FEATURING Company Members Tim Getman and Grady Weatherford with Wyckham Avery, Rachel Beauregard, Val Fenton, Danny Gavigan and Lee Matthews
DESIGNED BY Company Member Matthew Frederick (Sound Designer)with Eric Grims (Set Designer), Frank Labovitz (Costume Designer), Andrew R. Cissna (Lighting Designer) and Becca Dieffenbach (Props Designer)
STAGE MANAGED BY Kyle Jean Fisher
WITH Casey Kaleba (Fight Choreographer), Emily Levin (Assistant Director), Leah Hamos (Dramaturg), Lauren Cucarola (Assistant Costume Designer), Kate Lucibella (Technical Director), Robert Brown (Master Electrician) and Trey Carnley (Master Carpenter)
DEAD CITY is sponsored in part by Jeffery Cunard
SEASON 9 is sponsored in part by generous contributions from The Dobranski Foundation and Pete Miller & Sara Cormeny.
The show performs in THE DEVINE THEATRE at Georgetown University’s Royden B. Davis, S.J. Performing Arts Center
DEAD CITY is sponsored in part by generous support from Susan & Dixon Butler.
In an effort to reduce waste, Rorschach Theatre has gone electronic with much of our program copy. Whether you've seen the show already or are looking forward to it, we hope that you'll enjoy reading more about our artists here:
PHOTO: Rachel Beauregard by C. Stanley Photography