M34 Presents 4.48 PSYCHOSIS and LETTER TO MY FATHER, 5/10-27

M-34 presents Sarah Kane's 4.48 PSYCHOSIS and Franz Kafka's LETTER TO MY FATHER, two dramatic pieces which represent very personal accounts by these two artists at their most vulnerable times.  The plays will run for twelve performances each in repertory from May 10-27, 2012 at Magic Futurebox Theatre, 55 33rd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11232. Both pieces, which have been presented internationally by M-34, will be directed by James Rutherford. 

LETTER TO MY FATHER stars Michael Guagno (The Misanthrope/PS122).
In 1919, an ailing Franz Kafka writes a letter to his father.  In it he puts his anger, his fear, his guilt, his loneliness, his ingratitude, his debt, his despair, his joy, his pride, his confusion, his laughter, his hate, his memories, his shame, his tears, his disgust at everything his father represents and his profound hope that he might one day measure up to such a remarkable man.  The letter was never delivered – that is, until now.

4.48 PSYCHOSIS stars Emily Gleeson (As You Like It/Classic Stage Company) andLizzie Vieh* (4.48 Psychosis/AXA in Action, Prague). *Member, Actors' Equity Association.  AEA Showcase.
A career of horrible-gentle and violent-funny work comes to a close with Sarah Kane's magnum opus, written on the eve of her tragic suicide.  In it she tells the inner drama of a mind at the point of combustion.  In her hospital room she becomes patient, disease and doctor.  She is the Victim of unending cruelties, and her pain knows no limit.  She is the Perpetrator of every violence and delivers each blow with a smile.  She is the Bystander to her own suffering, deaf to her own shrill screams.  At The Edge of her death, Sarah Kane teaches us what it means to be alive.

 

From the Director
These two plays speak to how we use language as armor, blade and suture. Kafka constructs a convoluted legalese to simultaneously protect himself and indict his father, before becoming tangled in his own linguistic web.  Kane submerges both herself and the audience in a concrete poetry to subvert and confront the possibility of suicide.  Kafka's letter is an attempt to describe the way external forces (real or imagined) can suffocate the soul; Kane's poem is about how we become corroded from the inside.  In both pieces we see these writers at their most honest, speaking with devastating candor about personal, private despair. 

LETTER TO MY FATHER and 4.48 PSYCHOSIS are produced by M-34. Producer/Director: James Rutherford; Original Music: Dave Harrington; Scenic and Lighting Designer: Oona Curley; Publicist: Paul Siebold/Off Off PR.

LETTER TO MY FATHER plays the following schedule: Thursday, May 10 @ 7pm (preview), Friday, May 11 @ 7pm (opening); Saturday, May 12 @ 2pm; Saturday, May 12 @ 7pm; Sunday, May 13 @ 7pm; Friday, May 18 @ 7pm; Saturday, May 19 @ 7pm; Sunday, May 20 @ 7pm; Friday, May 25 @ 7pm; Saturday, May 26 @ 2pm; Saturday, May 26 @ 7pm; Sunday, May 27 @ 7pm.

4.48 PSYCHOSIS plays on the following schedule: Thursday, May 10 @ 8:30pm (preview); Friday, May 11 @ 8:30pm (opening); Saturday, May 12 @ 3:30pm; Saturday, May 12 @ 8:30pm; Sunday, May 13 @ 8:30pm; Friday, May 18 @ 8:30pm; Saturday, May 19 @ 8:30pm; Sunday, May 20 @ 8:30pm; Friday, May 25 @ 8:30pm; Saturday, May 26 @ 3:30pm; Saturday, May 26 @ 8:30pm; Sunday, May 27 @ 8:30pm.

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at brownpapertickets.com or by calling 800-838-3006.  

The runtime for each play is approximately 60 minutes no intermission.

James Rutherford (producer/director) is an interNational Theatre director based in New York, most recently seen presenting 4.48 Psychosis and Letter To My Father at the AXA in Action festival in Prague and assisting director Andrei Serban in Cluj, Romania. Recent productions include As You Like It (Classic Stage Company), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Columbia Stages), The Importance of Being E(a)rnest Hemingway (chashama) and Be Brave, Anna!  (FringeNYC).  James holds an MFA in directing from Columbia University and has studied with Richard Foreman (Ontological/Hysteric), Wlodzimierz Staniewski (Gardzienice) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. www.james-rutherford.com

M-34 is a fake mustache, an incendiary grenade, a star cluster and a crosstown bus.  Led by James Rutherford, it is a rotating ensemble of young people lying in the gutter but looking at the clouds.