Austin Playhouse to Present THE LIAR, 2/7-3/9

Austin Playhouse presents The Liar by David Ives, directed by Don Toner. The show will run February 7th - March 9th, 2014. Acclaimed Venus in Fur playwright, David Ives puts an eccentric twist on Pierre Corneille's 1643 text. The brand-new adaptation of this screwball comedy boasts zany characters, brilliant "swordplay," and jokes that will bring tears to your eyes, all while maintaining rhyming verse.

The Liar will run Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m. at Austin Playhouse at Highland Mall, 6001 Airport Blvd., Austin, TX 78752. Tickets: $28 Thursday/Friday, $30 Saturday/Sunday, $35 Opening Night. Box office: 512.476.0084 or online at www.austinplayhouse.com. All student tickets are half-price. $3 discount for Seniors 65 and up. Limited Pick-Your-Price Rush tickets will be available at the box office one hour prior to showtime for each Thursday performance.

Dorante, a charming young man, has but a single flaw: he cannot tell the truth. Newly arrived in Paris, he quickly befriends and hires Cliton, a uniquely trusty manservant who cannot tell a lie. In a chance encounter, Dorante falls in love with Clarice, a young woman whose name he unfortunately mistakes for that of her friend Lucrece. What our hero regrettably does not know is that his father is trying to get him married to this selfsame Clarice-a point complicated even further by the fact that she is already secretly engaged to Dorante's best friend Alcippe. Nor is he aware that the real Lucrece has fallen madly in love with him! >From all these misunderstandings and breathtakingly intricate lies, springs one of the Western world's greatest comedies. Full of intrigue, bravado, and laughs, The Liar is a delightful urban romance as fresh as the day Pierre Corneille wrote it.

The Liar stars Austin Playhouse Acting Company members Hildreth Enland (Clarice), Claire Grasso (Isabelle/Sabine), Huck Huckaby (Geronte), Benjamin Summers (Dorante), Lara Toner (Lucrece), and Ben Wolfe (Cliton), with Samuel Knowlton (Alcippe), and Stephen Mercantel (Philiste).

The play is directed by Don Toner, with set design by Patrick Crowley, lighting design by Don Day, costume design by Buffy Manners, and sound design by Joel Mercado-See.

This new adaptation of The Liar was commissioned by The Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in 2010 as part of their Rediscovery Series. Austin Playhouse is proud to be presenting its Austin premiere.

The season continues with the world premiere of Roaring by Cyndi Williams, April 4 - May 4, 2014, and a soon-to-be-announced comedy, May 23 - June 22, 2014.

Austin Playhouse is a professional theatre currently performing its 14th season. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Don Toner and Artistic Director Lara Toner Haddock, Austin Playhouse has grown from a three-play season on the campus of Concordia University, to a year-round operation producing an average of eight plays a year. Austin Playhouse is currently planning to build its own two-performance venue space in the heart of the new Mueller Redevelopment Town Center, adjacent to the new Austin Children's Museum.

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