Odradek Theatre Co. Presents Ferdinand Bruckner's PAINS OF YOUTH in Oracle B*Sides, Now thru 10/13

Oracle B*Sides has announced the Chicago premiere of Martin Crimp's adaptation of Ferdinand Bruckner's PAINS OF YOUTH. This co-production with Odradek Theatre Company is directed by Joshua Altman. PAINS OF YOUTH opens tonight, September 21, 2013, and runs through October 13, 2013 at Oracle Theatre (3809 N Broadway in Chicago). Performances are Friday, Saturday, and Monday nights at 8PM; Sundays at 7PM.

Admission to PAINS OF YOUTH is free in Oracle's Public Access Theatre. Reservations are highly recommended, and can be made at publicaccesstheatre.org. Seats are sponsored by The Forty 4, a growing population of individuals and local businesses committed to making free art for all. The Law Offices of Salvi, Schostok and Pritchard are the official sponsors of Public Access Theatre in 2013.

Set in Vienna a few years after the First World War, PAINS OF YOUTH explores adolescence through a steamy lens. Promiscuous, pitiless and bored, six sexually entangled medical students restlessly wander in and out of a boarding house, studying, drinking, taunting, and spying. Freder sets about savagely experimenting with the young, pretty maid, with half an eye on his former lover Desiree, a wild, disillusioned aristocrat. Petrell abandons Marie for the ruthless underdog Irene. Marie doesn't waste any time weeping - Desiree wants her. This discontented post-war generation diagnose youth to be their sickness and do their best to destroy it. Bourgeois existence or suicide; there are no other options. Odradek's production explores what it means to come of age in a world you didn't expect to inherit. This uniquely private production investigates the violent point between childhood and adulthood, when we learn what life really asks of us. It reveals what happens in that anxious, awakening moment when we understand who we really are, and then, who we must become.

The creative team features Cait Chiou (Scenic Design), Michael Sater* (Lighting Design), Alyssa Beach* and Rachel Bonacquisti* (Props Design), and Graphic Design by Kat Quintan* and Jonathen Wikholm*. Tony Santiago^ is Stage Manager, Naomi Lindh* is Assistant Director, Reed Motz is Production Assistant, and Kevin McDonald is Dramaturg. The production is produced by Ashley-Marie Quijano* and Jonathen Wikholm*. David Boren^ is Director of Programming for Oracle, and Ben Fuchsen^ is Executive Producer.

* Denotes Odradek company members
^ Denotes Oracle Production Company members

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