PLATH/HUGHES Premieres 10/18 at Gorilla Tango

Robert Eric Shoemaker's intensely moving duet-musical "PLATH/HUGHES," previously seen at Curious Theatre Branch's RHINOFEST, will perform at Gorilla Tango Bucktown this fall. "PLATH/HUGHES" opens Saturday, October 18 at 5:30 pm, and subsequently runs Saturday, October 25, Saturday, November 15, Friday, November 21, and Saturday, November 22, 2014 at 7 pm. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at gorillatango.com/bucktown or by calling 773-598-4549. $15 student tickets are available at the door with valid student ID. All performances take place at Gorilla Tango Bucktown, 1919 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60647.

Winner of the 2014 Olga and Paul Menn Foundation Prize for Best Play, "PLATH/HUGHES" explores the truth behind the turbulent marriage of two of the past century's most renowned and celebrated poets, Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Based on first-hand accounts from close friends and relatives and featuring their original poems as lyrics for show-stopping songs, "PLATH/HUGHES" is a tour-de-force duet musical that twists and turns. Following the fateful meeting of Sylvia and Ted and traveling the timeline through childbirth, mental illness, and both poets' deaths, "PLATH/HUGHES" is a breathless original piece that defies traditional musical theatre structure and conceits.

Audiences raved about the RHINOFEST 2014 production, calling the songs "neo-Sondheim-esque," the play "an innovative use of the musical genre" and "pure genius." Actors and singers Alexandra Merritt Mathews and Justin Krivda, both theatre students at the University of Chicago, portray Plath and Hughes with sensitivity, vulnerability, and fortitude.

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