COMPULSION Begins Previews at The Public Theater, 2/1

The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson), Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Yale Repertory Theatre present the world premiere production of Rinne Groff's COMPULSION, directed by Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. The cast features Hannah Cabell, Matte Osian, and Mandy Patinkin with puppet design by Matt Acheson. COMPULSION begins previews at The Public Theater (425 Lafayette Street) on Tuesday, February 1 and will continue through Sunday, March 13 with an official press opening on Thursday, February 17. Single tickets go on sale on Monday, December 27.

It is 1951, and Sid Silver is on a mission to be the guardian of one of the most moving and provocative accounts of the 20th century. Deeply moved by Anne Frank's diary, he is driven to bring her story to the American masses by promoting the book's publication and adapting the diary into a work of theater. Inspired by the story of Meyer Levin, COMPULSION brings playwright Rinne Groff and Artistic Director Oskar Eustis (The Ruby Sunrise) together again with a complex and inventive telling that is part historical fiction, part investigation into what makes a man obsess, and part exploration of an untold dimension of Anne Frank's powerful and enduring legacy.

The cast features Hannah Cabell (Miss Mermin / Mrs. Silver), Matte Osian (Mr. Thomas / Mr. Harris / Mr. Ferris / Mr. Matzliach) and Mandy Patinkin (Sid Silver).

COMPULSION will feature scenic design by Eugene Lee; costume design by Susan Hilferty; lighting design by Michael Chybowski; sound design by Darron L West; and video and projection design by Jeff Sugg.

Rinne Groff (Playwright) is the author of several plays including The Ruby Sunrise, produced at The Public; The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem, produced at Target Margin Theater; Inky, produced at Women's Project; Jimmy Carter Was a Democrat, produced at PS 122; The Moliere Impromptu, produced at Trinity Repertory Company; Orange Lemon Egg Canary, produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville's Humana Festival of New Plays; and What Then, produced at Clubbed Thumb. She also wrote the book and co-wrote the lyrics for In the Bubble at American Musical Theatre Project and wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the book for Saved at Playwrights Horizons. Groff has received fellowships from the Australian National Playwrights Conference, Chautauqua Theater Company, the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, the Perry Mansfield New Noises Festival and the Sundance Theatre Lab. She also received an Obie Award and NYSCA Individual Artist grants as well as a Whiting Writers Award. She wrote for a season of "Weeds" on Showtime and is a founding member of Elevator Repair Service and a member of New Dramatists and the Dramatists Guild.
Oskar Eustis (Director) is the Artistic Director of The Public Theater and has worked as a director, dramaturg, and artistic director for theaters around the country. From 1981 through 1986 he was resident director and dramaturg at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, and Artistic Director until 1989, when he moved to the L.A.'s Mark Taper Forum as Associate Artistic Director until 1994. Eustis then served as Artistic Director at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, Rhode Island for eleven years. In 2005 he took the helm at New York's Public Theater. Throughout his career, Eustis has been dedicated to the development of new plays as both a director and a producer. At The Public he directed the New York premiere of Rinne Groff's The Ruby Sunrise and Hamlet. At Trinity Rep, he directed the world premiere of Paula Vogel's The Long Christmas Ride Home (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production); Homebody/Kabul (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production); the world premiere of Rinne Groff's The Ruby Sunrise; Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director); Angels in America, Part II: Perestroika; as well as world premieres of plays by Philip Kan Gotanda, David Henry Hwang, Emily Mann, Suzan-Lori Parks, Ellen McLaughlin, and Eduardo Machado. He commissioned Tony Kushner's Angels in America at the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco and directed its world premiere at the Mark Taper Forum. Eustis was the lead producer on the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair on Broadway and is the lead producer on the current Broadway productions of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice.

Hannah Cabell (Miss Mermin / Mrs. Silver) was last seen on Broadway in the revival of A Man for All Seasons at the Roundabout Theatre Company. Other New York credits include Gentleman Caller at Clubbed Thumb, Jane Eyre at The Acting Company, Mark Smith and The Zero Hour at 13P, Millicent Scowlworthy at the Summer Play Festival and Pumpgirl at Manhattan Theatre Club. Her regional credits include Compulsion at Yale Repertory Theatre, the world premiere of Sarah Ruhl's In the Next Room (or the vibrator play) (Bay Area Critics' Circle Award nomination) at Berkeley Rep, Mary's Wedding and Sedition at Westport County Playhouse, Lewis Black's Slight Hitch at New York Stage and Film and Sarah Ruhl's adaptation of The Three Sisters at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. On TV she can be seen in "Law & Order: Criminal Intent."

Matte Osian (Mr. Thomas / Mr. Harris / Mr. Ferris / Mr. Matzliach) has appeared on Broadway in Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center and Twelve Angry Men for the Roundabout Theatre Company. His off-Broadway credits include Silence, Cunning, Exile for The Public Theater; The Adjustment with the Jewish Repertory Theater; the New York premiere of Portia Coughlan at the Times Square Theatre; Portraits at Union Square Theatre; The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui with Al Pacino, for the National Actors Theatre; and Souls of Naples (with John Turturro) for Theatre for a New Audience, which toured to Naples, Italy. Regional credits include the West Coast premiere of Mad Forest. Osian's film credits include Conspiracy Theory, Enchanted, The Loop (upcoming) and Richard II. His TV appearances include "Hack," "Law & Order," "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," "Mad About You," "Third Watch" and "Ugly Betty."

Mandy Patinkin (Sid Silver) won the Tony Award for his Broadway debut in Evita and was again nominated for Sunday in the Park with George and The Wild Party. He also performed on Broadway in Falsettos, The Secret Garden, The Shadow Box, Trelawny of the 'Wells' and his solo concerts Celebrating Sondheim, Dress Casual and Mamaloshen. For The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, Patinkin appeared in Dress Casual; Hamlet; Henry IV, Part 1; The Knife; Leave It to Beaver Is Dead; Rebel Women; and The Winter's Tale. His other theatre credits include Enemy of the People, Savages, The Split, The Tempest and most recently Compulsion both at Berkeley Rep and Yale Rep and Paradise Found at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London. On screen, he has been seen in Alien Nation, The Choking Man, Daniel, Dick Tracy, The Doctor, The House on Carroll Street, Impromptu, Lulu on the Bridge, Maxie, Men with Guns, The Music of Chance, Pinero, The Princess Bride, Ragtime, Squanto: Indian Warrior, True Colors and Yentl, as well as The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland. His television series include "Chicago Hope" (Emmy Award), "Criminal Minds" and Showtime's "Dead Like Me." Mandy's solo albums include Mandy Patinkin, Mandy Patinkin Dress Casual and on the Nonesuch label, Experiment, Kidults, Mamaloshen, Mandy Patinkin Sings Sondheim and Oscar and Steve. Mandy continues to tour his solo concerts as well as An Evening with Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, and this fall debuted a new concert with the opera star Nathan Gunn.

The Public Theater (Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director; Andrew D. Hamingson, Executive Director) was founded by Joseph Papp in 1954 and is now one of the nation's preeminent cultural institutions, producing new plays, musicals, and productions of classics at its downtown and at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Public's mandate to create a theater for all New Yorkers continues to this day onstage and through extensive outreach and education programs. Each year, over 250,000 people attend Public Theater-related productions and events at its downtown headquarters, Joe's Pub, and Shakespeare in the Park. The Public has won 42 Tony Awards, 151 Obies, 41 Drama Desk Awards and four Pulitzer Prizes. The Public has brought 54 shows to Broadway, including Sticks and Bones; That Championship Season; A Chorus Line; The Pirates of Penzance; The Tempest; Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk; On the Town; The Ride Down Mt. Morgan; Topdog/Underdog; Elaine Stritch at Liberty; Take Me Out; Caroline, or Change; Well; Passing Strange; the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair; and this fall, the rock musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and the 2010 Shakespeare in the Park production of The Merchant of Venice. www.publictheater.org.

Berkeley Repertory Theatre has grown from a storefront stage to a national leader in innovative theatre. Known for its core values of imagination and excellence, as well as its educated and adventurous audience, the nonprofit has provided a welcoming home for emerging and established artists since 1968. The Theatre welcomes an annual audience of 180,000, serves 20,000 students, and hosts dozens of community groups, thanks to 1,000 volunteers and more than 400 artists, artisans, and administrators. With two stages, a school, and a Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre, Berkeley Rep is proud to premiere exhilarating new plays. In the last five years alone, the company has helped send five shows to Broadway: American Idiot, Bridge & Tunnel, In the Next Room (or the vibrator play), Passing Strange, and Wishful Drinking. www.berkeleyrep.org

 

Yale Repertory Theatre is dedicated to the production of new plays and bold interpretations of classics and has produced well over 100 premieres-including two Pulitzer Prize winners and four other nominated finalists-by emerging and established playwrights. Eleven Yale Rep productions have advanced to Broadway, garnering more than 40 Tony Award nominations and eight Tony Awards. Yale Rep is also the recipient of the Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. Established in 2008, the Yale Center for New Theatre is an integrated, artist-driven initiative that devotes major resources to the commissioning, development, and production of new plays and musicals at Yale Repertory Theatre and across the country. Professional assignments at Yale Repertory Theatre are integral components of the program at Yale School of Drama, the nation's leading graduate theatre training conservatory. www.yalerep.org.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets for COMPULSION begin at $75 for all performances. Single tickets go on sale on December 27 at (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at The Public Theater box office; Member tickets now on sale.

The performance schedule for COMPULSION is Tuesdays through Fridays at 8 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sundays at 2 p.m. There will be additional performances on Sunday, February 6 at 8 p.m. and on Wednesday, March 2 at 2 p.m. (Please Note: the Wednesday performance on February 23 is at 7 p.m.)

There will no performances Saturday February 5 at 2 p.m.; Saturday, February 12; Sunday, February 13; Friday, March 4 through Sunday, March 6.

The Public Theater is located at 425 Lafayette Street. For more information, please visit www.publictheater.org.

 

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus