DEAD CITY

July 16 – August 16, 2009
  • by Haruki Murakami
  • Directed by Randy Baker
  • THE DEVINE THEATRE at Georgetown University’s Royden B. Davis, S.J. Performing Arts Center

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.

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.

DEAD CITY was sponsored in part by generous support from Jeffery Cunard and from Susan & Dixon Butler.

SEASON 9 was sponsored in part by generous contributions from The Dobranski Foundation and Pete Miller & Sara Cormeny.

“Gorgeously realized… tends to challenge six different theatrical conventions before the first act break.”

Washington City Paper

FEATURING

Tim Getman
Grady Weatherford
Wyckham Avery
Rachel Beauregard
Val Fenton
Danny Gavigan
Lee Matthews

Designers

Sound Matthew Frederick
Set Eric Grims
Costumes Frank Labovitz
Lighting Andrew R. Cissna
Props Becca Dieffenbach

STAFF

Stage Manager Kyle Jean Fisher
Fight Choreographer Casey Kaleba
Assistant Director Emily Levin
Dramaturg Leah Hamos
Asst. Costume Designer Lauren Cucarola
Technical Director Kate Lucibella
Master Electrician Robert Brown
Master Carpenter Trey Carnley

PRODUCERS

Randy Baker
Jenny McConnell Frederick

MEDIA

PRESS

“Callaghan’s work is totally original and Rorschach Theatre’s invigorating production gives a fine rendition of a work from a fresh theatrical voice.”
DC Theatre Scene
“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.”
The Washington Post