Pacific Resident Theatre Opens ALBEE / PINTER This Weekend

Pacific Resident Theatre presents "ALBEE / PINTER", opening September 24.

Harnessing the flair of two iconic playwrights, Pacific Resident Theatre delights in offering a pair of meaty dark comedies beginning September 24. A retrospective of two early one acts, both first produced in 1960, the plays will run in tandem. Tony Award winners Edward Albee and Harold Pinter, who have left indelible marks in world theatre, give voice to the outlandish and amusing behavior of humans.

Albee's Fam and Yam, set in an upper Eastside penthouse, examines an encounter between two unnamed playwrights, one famous, one not. This brief curtain raiser is an eloquent example of Albee's biting wit and incisive satire.

In Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, two hitmen wait in a basement for their next assignment. Often called the best of Harold Pinter's early plays, it combines the classic characteristics of early Pinter - a paucity of information and an atmosphere of menace, working-class small-talk in a claustrophobic setting - with an oblique but palpable political edge, and can be seen as containing the germ of Pinter's entire dramatic oeuvre.

"The characters in both Fam and Yam and The Dumb Waiter deal with feelings of uncertainty and loss and don't see or know what is happening. As we come out of these last few years of the pandemic, these plays, filled with uncertainty, depth, and humor seem extremely relevant," says Marilyn Fox; Artistic Director.

Edward Albee (Playwright / Fam and Yam) was best known for his first full-length play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), a Tony Award-winning production which also became a 1966 film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Albee received Pulitzer Prizes for A Delicate Balance (1966), Seascape (1972) and Three Tall Women (1994), among a host of other accolades. Albee's early one-act plays, including The Zoo Story (1959), established him as a critic of American values.

Harold Pinter (Playwright / The Dumb Waiter) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen.

The cast features Jason Downs (Gus/Yam), Anthony Foux (Ben), and Brad Greenquist (Fam).

The creative team includes William Wilday (Scenic Design), Matt Richter (Lighting Design), Audrey Eisner (Costume Design), Christopher Moscatiello (Sound Design).

The show opens at 8pm on Saturday September 24 and runs 8pm Thursdays - Saturdays, 3pm Sundays through October 30, 2022. Pacific Resident Theatre is located at 705 ½ Venice Blvd, Venice, CA 90291. Street parking or small lot in back. Tickets start at $20 online https://pacificresidenttheatre.org/albee-pinter or call (310) 822-8392.

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