Photo Flash: MLIMA'S TALE Unfolds at the Public

The Public Theater is currently hosting the world premiere of MLIMA'S TALE, written by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed by Obie Award winner Jo Bonney. MLIMA'S TALE continues The Public's Astor Anniversary Season at their landmark downtown home on Lafayette Street, celebrating 50 years of new work and the 50th Anniversary of HAIR. The play will run through Sunday, May 20 in The Public's Martinson Hall, with an official press opening on Sunday, April 15. Continuing The Public's mission to make great theater accessible to all, The Public's First Performance "Free for All" continues this spring with free tickets to the first preview on Tuesday, March 27; available beginning March 20, via TodayTix mobile lottery.

The complete cast of MLIMA'S TALE features Ito Aghayere (Player 3), Jojo Gonzalez (Player 2), Kevin Mambo (Player 1), and Sahr Ngaujah (Mlima).

This season, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage returns to The Public with a new drama as moving and incisive as her Broadway debut play Sweat. Taking us on a journey that starts in a game park in Kenya and goes around the world, MLIMA'S TALE is the story of Mlima, a magnificent elephant trapped in the clandestine international ivory market. Following a trail of greed and desire as old as trade itself, Mlima leads us through memory and fear, history and tradition, and want and need. Obie Award winner Jo Bonney directs this poignant new play that reveals the surprising and complicated deals that connect us all.

MLIMA'S TALE features scenic design by Riccardo Hernandez, costume design by Jennifer Moeller, lighting design by Lap Chi Chu, sound design by Darron L West, music composition and direction by Justin Hicks, and movement direction by Chris Walker.

MLIMA'S TALE opens on Sunday, April 15. The performance schedule is Tuesday through Friday at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. (There is no 2:00 p.m. performance on Saturday, March 31 and no 8:00 p.m. performance on Tuesday, April 10 or Sunday, April 29. There is an added performance on Monday, April 9 at 7:00 p.m.)

Public Theater Partner, Supporter Member tickets, and full price tickets, starting at $65, can be accessed by calling (212) 967-7555, visiting www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater at 425 Lafayette Street.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus