REDCAT And The Wooster Group Present SYMPHONY OF RATS West Coast Premiere

On October 18-20 & 22-23, 2024, Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT), CalArts' center for contemporary arts in downtown Los Angeles, presents critically-acclaimed The Wooster Group with the West Coast premiere of Symphony of Rats.

A president of the United States is receiving messages by mysterious means, and he doesn't know whether to trust them. In this new Wooster Group Production, directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and Kate Valk, Richard Foreman's 1988 play is reimagined with a multilayered sound and video score that draws from wide-ranging literary and cinematic sources, including William Blake, D.H. Lawrence, and Charlie Chaplin. Set in a spaceship-museum gallery, this surreal production follows the president as he plunges into a series of encounters with otherworldly beings, among them a giant rat with a special message. Moving between the apocalyptic and the mundane, The Wooster Group considers how technology questions what it means to be human.

Please note: Symphony of Rats contains mature content and loud sounds.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The Wooster Group, led by founding member and director Elizabeth LeCompte, is a pioneer of experimental theater. Established in 1975, the Group has created more than 40 theater and dance works, over 20 media pieces, and one ribbon cutting ceremony. LeCompte-directed theater productions include: Rumstick Road (1977); L.S.D. (… Just the High Points …) (1984); Brace Up! (1991); The Hairy Ape (1996); House/Lights (1999); To You, the Birdie! (Phèdre) (2002); Hamlet (2006); the opera La Didone (2008); Vieux Carré (2009); The Room (2015); The Town Hall Affair (2017); A Pink Chair (In Place of a Fake Antique) (2018); and The Mother (2021). Early Shaker Spirituals (2014), The B-Side: Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons (2017), and Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me (2024) were directed by associate director Kate Valk. The Group's work has been featured in museum and gallery shows internationally, including three Whitney Biennials and commissions for the 2015 opening of the new Whitney Museum building and the 2006 Dada exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

Group founding members: Elizabeth LeCompte and Spalding Gray with Ron Vawter, Jim Clayburgh, Willem Dafoe, Kate Valk, and Peyton Smith.

Richard Foreman is a major American avant-garde playwright who founded the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in 1968. He has written and directed over 50 plays, which toured nationally and internationally. In 1988, he wrote Symphony of Rats and directed The Wooster Group performers Peyton Smith, Kate Valk, Ron Vawter, and Jeff Webster in a production at The Performing Garage. In 2022, LeCompte and Valk asked Foreman if the Group could make a new version of the play. He responded, “You can do whatever you want! I hope it's completely unrecognizable.” 

TICKETS & INFORMATION:

October 18-19 & 22-23, 2024 at 8:30 p.m. 
October 19 & 20 at 3 p.m.

Ticketing
$50 for General admission 
$40 for students and REDCAT members
$25 for CalArts students, faculty and staff 

Tickets can be purchased at:
https://www.redcat.org/events/2024/the-wooster-group

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