Scandinavian American Theater Company to Present PINOCCHIO’S ASHES, 4/13-28

By: Kelsey Denette Mar. 09, 2012

"I love the smell of classics burning in the morning," declares Judge Wolff in the first line of Jokum Rohde's philosophical thriller Pinocchio's Ashes. And while his is a war on art and culture, Wolff goes about his business with the same lustful ruthlessness as the Apocalypse Now protagonist he echoes. The Danish playwright's award-winning work is an expressionistic noir drama about the role of art in our times and the demonic streak in human nature.

Scandinavian American Theater Company (SATC) will present the American premiere of Pinocchio's Ashes April 13-29 at Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue).

Performances will take place April 13, 14, 16, 18-21, 23, and 25-28 at 7:30 P.M.; and April 15, 22 and 29 at 3:00 P.M. Tickets are $18 ($15 for students and seniors) and are available by calling 800.838.3006 or visiting www.satcnyc.org. Critics are welcome as of Saturday, April 14 for an official opening Monday, April 16.

Jokum Rohde (b. 1970, Denmark), a resident playwright at The Royal Danish Theater in Copenhagen since 2008, is one of Europe's most celebrated contemporary writers for the stage. He scored a breakthrough in 1998 with the three-character theater-noir drama Nero, and has since written nine plays that have been produced throughout Denmark and Europe. For Pinocchio's Ashes (2005), Rohde garnered Denmark's prestigious Reumert Award in the category Playwright of the Year. The play has subsequently been produced at Dramaten, the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as in Norway, Lithuania and Italy.

The play tells a gripping story filled with melancholy, poetry and dark humor. It is set in the city of Kongstad, where a national ban has been imposed on art and culture. Judge Wolff enforces the ban by ordering severe punishments of those secretly practicing art. When an informant finds a Pinocchio doll in the workshop of local cabinet-maker Werner Brown, he reports the crime to Wolff, who sentences Brown to have his right hand cut off. Suddenly a crime wave washes over Kongstad. In the decadent and paranoid universe Rohde has created, Wolff and the other characters become human wrecks.

This American premiere production is directed by SATC member Henning Hegland, and features Alfred Gingold (as Judge Wolff), Neal Moeller (as District Attorney Alexander Trocchi), Mike James (as Werner Brown), Sue-Ellen Mandell (as Miranda), Albert Bendix (as the informant Marc Dutroux), Tiago Castro (as the Waiter), Lisa Bearkpark (as Carola Lang), and Izzy Hanson-Johnston (as Carola's daughter, Mary).

The production features set designe by Julia Przedmojska, lighting by Gertjan Houben, sound by Jay Spriggs, costumes by Dasha Martikainen, dramaturgy by Brendan Padgett, movement direction by Vigdis Henze Olsen and movement consulting by Erin Kelly. Andrew Kane is Assistant Director, and Nina Hobert composed original music for the production.

With Pinocchio's Ashes, Scandinavian American Theater Company continues a successful emergence onto the New York theater scene. SATC productions to date include the English-language premiere of Juha Jokela's The Fundamentalist, in the 2011 New York International Fringe Festival, FringeNYC; the English-language premiere of Andreas Garfield's Home Sweet Home, in 2010 at Performance Space 122; Anette Norgaard's one-woman show, Dramatically Different, in 2010 at The Players Club; and SATC's first production, in 2010 at Scandinavia House, of Craig Lucas' modern adaptation of August Strindberg's Miss Julie.

In connection with the American premiere of Pinocchio's Ashes, SATC will present several panel discussions. Details will be announced soon.

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Scandinavian American Theater Company to Present PINOCCHIO’S ASHES, 4/13-28

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