Turner & Neuwirth Star in 'The Vultures' Free Reading 10/1

The Flea Theater joins forces with the Alliance Francaise for a one time only FREE reading of Henri Becque's The Vultures directed by Jim Simpson on Monday, October 1 at 8PM.

Kathleen Turner (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) and Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago) lead an all-star cast that also includes Annie Parisse ("Law & Order"), Maria Dizzia and Mark Zeisler, James Waterston, Gerry Bammon, Ron Fabor, Jacqueline Chambord and The Bats, the resident acting company at The Flea. 

The performance will take place at Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th Street. Reservations can be made by calling 646-388-6681.

"A father's heart attack, a fortune suddenly up for grabs, and an otherwise peaceful family left to fight like animals for the spoils—it's The Vultures, a play by the little-known nineteenth-century French writer Henri Becque, resurrected in English for a reading on American soil. Leading an all-star cast of New Yorkers, two-time Obie Award-winning director Jim Simpson (Flea Theater) brings a downtown sensibility to a story rife with the spirit of Ibsen. Through mere naked text and the powerful performances behind it, a caustic indictment of Industrial Age mores becomes a cautionary tale for our own," explain press notes.

The reading is part of "Crossing the Line," the Alliance Francaise annual festival of contemporary theater, dance, music, visual arts, and film by leading French and American artists.  Crossing the Line invites some of the most innovative artistic voices from France and New York to cross geographic and conceptual lines with daring works which will delight, inspire, surprise, and challenge you to cross your own lines and reexamine your expectations of French culture.