The Wooster Group Extends Harold Pinter's THE ROOM

The Wooster Group announces a one-week extension to their advance showings of THE ROOM by Harold Pinter at The Performing Garage in New York City. This limited engagement offers New York audiences an advance look at the Group's newest production before it opens in Los Angeles at REDCAT, February 4-14, 2016. THE ROOM will open in New York the following season.

The extended New York showings of THE ROOM will run Wednesdays - Saturdays, October 28 - 31, November 4 - 7, 11 - 14 and 18 - 21 at 7:30 pm at The Performing Garage (33 Wooster Street, SoHo, Manhattan). The remaining tickets start at $30 and are available at www.thewoostergroup.org or by phone at 212.966.3651. These advance showings will not be open for review.

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.

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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