Invictus Theatre Company Announces 2021-22 Season
Invictus’s season closer will be Edward Albee’s WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Aug. 17, 2021
Invictus Theatre Company today announced its fifth season of plays, which will open with Shakespeare's HAMLET, to run October 21 through November 21, 2021. Continuing the company's tradition of performing modern classics as well as Shakespeare, the season will also include the 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner RUINED, by Lynn Nottage, from February 17 to March 20; and Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf from May 12 to June 12. Audiences will again have the opportunity to experience these powerful text-driven plays in an intimate storefront setting, as the company performs them in their new venue at 1106 W. Thorndale Avenue in Edgewater (the space formerly known as The Frontier).
Artistic Director Charles Askenaizer will direct the season-opening HAMLET. He says, "While we often think of Shakespeare's plays as being large and spectacular, which they can be, HAMLET is at its heart, an intimate piece. In major moments of the play, it's just us and Hamlet, as he is deep in his thoughts while he contemplates taking revenge on the uncle who he believes has murdered his father. Even when Hamlet is with others, much of the play's conflict happens between Hamlet and just one or two other people. We're looking forward to giving our audiences the chance to see this classic in such close quarters."
HAMLET will be followed in the Invictus season by RUINED, a drama originally commissioned by The Goodman Theatre, where it premiered in 2008. A story of women caught in a civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
RUINED will be directed by Ebby Offord (pictured - click on image to access high res file), a 2019 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis who has studied at Shakespeare's Globe in London.
Invictus's season closer will be Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf. A four-character drama that is often as wickedly funny as it is heartbreaking, two married couples battle with their spouses and each other over an alcohol-fueled night in a small, overstuffed living room. The tension the characters feel in these close quarters will be conveyed to the audience in Askenaizer's storefront production in the 40-seat theater at 1106 W. Thorndale.
Invictus Theatre Company has, over its five-year history, built a reputation for intimate and honest interpretations of classics with fidelity to the original texts and close attention to character development.
Tickets for HAMLET will be available soon at www.invictustheatreco.com.
DETAILS:
HAMLET
Directed by Charles Askenaizer
October 21 - November 21, 2021
Previews: October 21-24, 2021
Press Opening Monday October 25th at 7:30 pm
Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays 7:30pm, Sundays 3pm
1106 W. Thorndale, Chicago
Ticket prices: Previews $25.00 Regular run $30. $25 for students (with valid student ID) and seniors.
One of Shakespeare's most popular plays - in his time as well as in ours - HAMLET concerns the young Prince of Denmark, who is trying to decide whether or not to murder the uncle who he believes killed his father and then married his mother. One of the most influential works of literature, it contains one of the greatest roles ever written for an actor and such famous lines as "To be or not to be," "The play's the thing," and "to thine own self be true."
RUINED
by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Ebby Offord
February 17 - March 20, 2022
Previews February 17 - 20, 2022.
Press Opening February 21, 2022, at 7:30 pm
Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays 7:30pm, Sundays 3pm
1106 W. Thorndale, Chicago
Ticket prices: Previews $25.00 Regular run $30. $25 for students (with valid student ID) and seniors.
This winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize is set in a small mining town in the Democratic Republic of Congo. RUINED follows Mama Nadi, a shrewd businesswoman in a land torn apart by civil war. But is she protecting or profiting by the women she shelters? How far will she go to survive? Can a price be placed on a human life?
Edward Albee'S WHO'S AFRAID OF Virginia Woolf
Directed by Charles Askenaizer
May 12 - June 12, 2022
Previews May 12-15, 2022
Press Opening May 16, 2022 @ 7:30 pm
Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays 7:30pm, Sundays 3pm
1106 W. Thorndale, Chicago
Ticket prices: Previews $25.00 Regular run $30. $25 for students (with valid student ID) and seniors.
George, a professor at a small college, and his wife, Martha, have just returned home, drunk from a Saturday night party when Martha announces that she has invited a young couple to stop by for a nightcap. The drinks flow and suddenly inhibitions melt. It becomes clear that Martha is determined to seduce the young professor, and George couldn't care less. But underneath the edgy banter, which is cross fired between both couples, lurks an undercurrent of tragedy and despair.
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