The Wooster Group Brings Harold Pinter's THE ROOM to Los Angeles

The Wooster Group presents THE ROOM by Harold Pinter in Los Angeles at REDCAT, tonight, February 4, through February 14, 2016.

THE ROOM is directed by Wooster Group director Elizabeth LeCompte and features performances by Group members and associates Ari Fliakos as Mr. Kidd and Mr. Sands, Philip Moore as Riley, Scott Renderer as Bert Hudd, Suzzy Roche as Mrs. Sands, and Kate Valk as Rose.

The full ensemble includes: lighting: Jennifer Tipton with Ryan Seelig; sound, video, and projections: Max Bernstein; sound: Eric Sluyter; original music tracks: Omar Zubair; sound consultant and additional sound elements: Bobby McElver; video and projections: Robert Wuss; assistant director and costume supervisor: Enver Chakartash; stage manager: Erin Mullin; production manager: Bona Lee; and technical fellow/sound assistant: Gareth Hobbs.

A note from The Wooster Group:

"Our entry point for THE ROOM was the well-known description of the play as a "comedy of menace." We approached the text vis-à-vis comedic forms, especially duos in stand-up comedy that we know from television skits, which come from vaudeville. Then we were on a research trip to China, where we discovered the traditional Chinese comic form called xiansheng or "cross talk." It's extremely popular and has an entire television channel devoted to it. Unlike American TV comedy duos, "cross talk" develops its comedy over time through an extended narrative, allowing more nuance in its storytelling style. With the tone, inflections, and timing of the Chinese "cross-talk," we've been working with the text of Pinter's play.

"We have often gravitated toward Asian theater because its style encompasses all forms of the arts and has an architecture that isn't located in a naturalistic place. Music, dance and text are integrated into the storytelling and play equal parts in the final art form.

"The Wooster Group's work has experimented with this approach to theater for the past forty years. We are always trying to find new ways to tell stories, and putting "cross talk" into conversation with Pinter's text takes us in new directions."

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