Maxwell, Morfogen, Etc. Set for Mint's 'Madras House'
By: BWW News Desk Dec. 04, 2006
The Drama Desk and Obie Award-wining Mint Theater Company will present a rare New York revival of Harley Granville-Barker's 1909 The Madras House. Gus Kaikkonen will direct. Performances begin January 31st.
The Madras House will feature Roberta Maxwell and George Morfogen as Amelia and Constantine Madras, along with Tony Award-nominees Laurie Kennedy and Jonathan Hogan. Roberta Maxwell recently starred as Jack Twist's mother in Brokeback Mountain; George Morfogen created the role of Rebadow for six seasons of the HBO hit "OZ;" Laurie Kennedy received a Tony nomination for her role in Shaw's Man and Superman; Jonathan Hogan was nominated for the 1985 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for As Is."Phillip Madras is the heir to a leading London fashion emporium established by his father Constantine, a legendary designer who has abandoned his family and the evils of the West, converted to Mohammedism, and established a polygamous household in Iraq. Constantine's return to England to sell the family business precipitates a series of loosely connected scenes that serve as "a merciless critique of that ragbag of attitudes we now call 'family values,'" state York notes.
For the first time since 1921 (when it was acclaimed by such critics as Alexander Woolcott), "New York audiences will have an opportunity to see Granville-Barker's dazzling comedy about men and women and sex and shopping (and marriage and children and art and education)."
For the first time since 1921 (when it was acclaimed by such critics as Alexander Woolcott), "New York audiences will have an opportunity to see Granville-Barker's dazzling comedy about men and women and sex and shopping (and marriage and children and art and education)."
Harley Granville-Barker was one of the most influential figures in the history of the modern theater. "We are all in debt to Granville-Barker," wrote The Guardian just last spring, "His ideas were prophetic and extraordinary." He was an inspired director, a visionary producer and a brilliant playwright—and yet he is hardly known in this country. His impact is still felt keenly, here and in England. His Prefaces to Shakespeare revolutionized the approach to staging the plays—in fact some credit him with evolving the role of the modern director as unifier of the creative elements in drama and representative of the author.
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