Photo Flash: THE WRESTLING PATIENT At SpeakEasy Stage

From March 27-April 11, 2009, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Boston Playwrights' Theatre and FortyMagnolias Productions, will team up to present the world premiere of THE WRESTLING PATIENT, a new play inspired by the life and writings of Dutch Jewish author Etty Hillesum.
Written by acclaimed playwright Kirk Lynn in collaboration with Boston actress Anne Gottlieb and Obie Award-winning director Katie Pearl, THE WRESTLING PATIENT tells the story of a young woman who, as World War II engulfed her native Amsterdam, was confronted with a remarkable choice: to hold onto a kind of integrity, or to save her own life. With the help of a charismatic teacher, Etty wrestled to answer the demons of her time by looking within herself, remaining a celebrant of life whose intelligence, sympathy, and generosity were themselves a form of inner resistance.

THE WRESTLING PATIENT is the work of three talented theatre artists who came together to create this remarkable tale. Ity was Anne Gottlieb who first secured the rights to tell Etty's story, and who, in 2005 brough on playwright Kirk Lynn as a collaborator after being introduced by a mutual friend. Mr. Lynn is the founder and co-artistic director of the Rude Mechanicals theater collective in Austin, TX, where he has had 16 of his plays produced. Mr. Lynn has also had success in New York with productions of his plays Lipstick Traces and Major Bang. In 2006, director Katie Pearl joined the project, which received a stage reading last March sponsored by SpeakEasy Stage.