Mary-Arrchie to Stage World Premiere Adaptation of IBSEN'S GHOSTS This Fall

Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. is pleased to continue its 30th and final season with the world premiere adaptation of IBSEN'S GHOSTS, adapted and directed by Neo-Futurist Founding Director Greg Allen. Wrestling with the themes of identity, truth, fate and freedom, Allen puts his trademark meta-theatricality on Henrik Ibsen's scandalous 1882 play, Ghosts. Allen's unique spin on Mrs. Alving's classic battle with Pastor Manders includes humor, self-referentiality and a bit of irreverence in this, his first, and apparently last, show with Mary-Arrchie.

IBSEN'S GHOSTS features Kirk Anderson, Carolyn Hoerdemann, Catherine Lavoie, Gage Wallace and Stephen Walker.

Despite the traditional teachings of the Bible and her Pastor, Mrs. Alving has discovered new enlightenment through literature, including the works of Henrik Ibsen. Armed with "the truth" and the knowledge that she might be trapped as a character in an Ibsen play, she attempts to subvert the traditional narrative and find an alternative to the gloomy doomed destiny of her son Oswald and his lover/sister Regina.

"Ever since staging The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen, I've always wanted to return to a full-length production of an Ibsen play," comments Allen. "With its themes of incest, blasphemy, class revolt and sexually transmitted disease, Ghosts is certainly one of his most outrageous plays, but once I really dove into the adaptation I discovered a meta-theatrical answer to make some of the play's issues have a more contemporary immediacy. What would you do if you suddenly discovered you were trapped in a plot written by Henrik Ibsen? With this incredible Chicago cast and the addition of one of my Montreal Neo-Futurists, I think this will be an extremely exciting production that will put Ghosts back on the map of the contemporary theatrical landscape," adds Allen.

The production team for IBSEN'S GHOSTS includes: Matt Gawryk (scenic and lighting design), Sarah Jo White (costume design), Chas Vrba (sound design), Mike Sanow (technical director), Brent Eickhoff (assistant director) and Ellen Osborne (stage manager).

IBSEN'S GHOSTS will play November 8 - December 20, 2015 at Angel Island, 735 W. Sheridan Rd. in Chicago. Tickets are currently available at www.maryarrchie.com, by calling (773) 871-0442 or in person at the box office. The press performance is Thursday, November 12 at 8 pm.

About the Adapter/Director - Greg Allen is the Founding Director of The Neo-Futurists and creator of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind and over fifty other productions. His award-winning work as director and playwright has been seen at the Goodman, Steppenwolf, Northlight, Court and dozens of other theaters in Chicago, at The Public, HERE, Cherry Lane, and Lincoln Center in New York, and all over North America and around the world (currently there are productions of his plays in New York, San Francisco, Japan, Ireland, Canada and Tanzania!) His productions include The Last Two Minutes of the Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen, The Strange and Terrible True Tale of Pinocchio (the Wooden Boy) as Told by Frankenstein's Monster (the Wretched Creature), Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, H2O, and K., his award-winning adaptation of Kafka's The Trial. His play What Happened in Pinkville? (A Cubist Dialectic on the Massacre at My Lai was a finalist for the National Playwright's Conference this year, and his direction of all 7 hours and 9 acts of Strange Interlude inspired hecklers and immediate standing ovations every night in the Goodman's Eugene O'Neill Festival. Greg has also had his work turned into a film by the amazing Hal Hartley, and his play Title was adapted into a Hollywood film just this year. His upcoming projects include rewriting Sleeping with the Prince of Darkness: The Imagined Pillow-Talk of FBI Agent John O'Neill - a commission for the Goodman, remounting Strange Interlude for a national tour, mounting a Harold Pinter Festival, and adapting the works of Franz Kafka with puppet-master Michael Montenegro. Greg teaches performance and playwriting at University of Chicago, The Theatre School at Depaul and The National Theater Institute at the O'Neill Center in Connecticut, as well as at the Neo-Futurarium and in residencies all over North America.

About Mary-Arrchie Theater Co. - Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co. was established in 1986 and is currently in its 30th full season of theater. We are committed to producing theater as an ensemble including actors, directors, and designers who are intimately involved in the process. We approach material, published and original, dealing with the fears and passions of the human condition involving characters who are often misunderstood, societal outcasts, and victims of their own exile. We have garnered a reputation for making risky choices by embracing challenging material for both our audience and the artists involved. We are dedicated to bringing light to controversial subjects and presenting alternative viewpoints of these subjects giving our audience different information to consider as they walk away from the theater. For additional information, visit www.maryarrchie.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.