Bridge Street World Premiere Called 'An Undiluted Triumph!'

When Bridge Street Theatre co-founders John Sowle and Steven Patterson decided to take a chance on a new work by playwright Kieron Barry, it turned out to be a very wise decision. The Official Adventures of Kieron and Jade, Barry's autobiographical comedy about a long-term relationship that ends unexpectedly, has proven to be a real hit with audiences.

The play, starring actors Jason Guy as Kieron and Bonita Jackson who plays 15 different characters including Jade, isn't exactly about the break-up itself. It's about whether or not the playwright should write about the break-up. Barry (the stage version) takes stock of his options in conversations with (among others) a theater director, a medical doctor, his mother, a nurse, a psychiatrist, and Samuel L. Jackson - all played by Jackson. All this angst is handled with a deft comedic touch, in the style the screwball film comedies of the 1930s. "It had to be a comedy," Barry says. "What could be more awful than listening to someone complain about themselves onstage for an hour and a half?" Still, critic J. Peter Bergman in the Berkshire Bright Focus says it all when he notes "[Barry] is a writer whose reality must be filtered through a comedy curtain that splits open every time to show his pain."

This "tour-de-force" (Barbara Waldinger - Berkshire On Stage) is directed by Bridge Street Theatre's co-founder John Sowle. Balancing actor Jason Guy's strong neurotic Kieron with Bonita Jackson's whirlwind assortment of characters is no easy task. The play moves like a speeding train - there's scarcely a moment for either actors or audience can pause to breathe - and the show runs 90 straight minutes with no intermission. That hour-and-a-half flies by, in part because of the inventive work of Carmen Borgia, the production's sound designer, who provides musical interludes, sounds, songs, and even an actual recording of the "real" Kieron Barry in a session with his psychiatrist - all of which keep the play hurtling forward and audiences on the edge of their seats. In the words of Barbara Waldinger, critic for Berkshire On Stage, the play is "funny, effective and sexy!"

The Official Adventures of Kieron and Jade continues its run Thursday April 27th through Sunday April 30th at the Bridge Street Theatre, located at 44 West Bridge Street in the Village of Catskill. To reserve tickets, go to http://official.brownpapertickets.com or call 800-838-3006. Further information regarding the performances can be found at http://bridgest.org or by calling 518-943-3818.

Events at Bridge Street Theatre are supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature and by Public Funds from the Greene County Legislature through the Cultural Fund administered in Greene County by the Greene County Council on the Arts.

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