Michael Laurence's HAMLET IN BED Begins Tonight at Rattlestick

HAMLET IN BED, written by Michael Laurence and directed by Lisa Peterson, begins previews tonight, August 28, and opens September 17, 2015 (a week later than the previously announced date of September 10). HAMLET IN BED plays at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place. Joining Mr. Laurence in the cast is Annette O'Toole. The production runs through Sunday, October 25.

Michael is a neurotic actor and adoptee obsessed with two things -- finding his real mother, and playing the famous gloomy Dane. His twin fixations collide when he tracks down Anna, a reclusive former actress-turned-barfly; gripped by the notion that she might be his actual birth-mother, he first stalks her from a distance, then lures her into a noirish production of Hamlet playing the role of his mother the queen. HAMLET IN BED is a twisty and darkly comic story about mothers and sons--about what it means to live a life in the theatre, both a generation ago, and now -- and about families -- the ones we're born into, and the ones we find along the way.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is an award-winning company that has produced over sixty world premieres in the past twenty seasons and was the recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award for developing new and innovative work. Previous plays include Two Boys in a Bed, Message to Michael, Carpool, Volunteer Man, A Trip to the Beach, Ascendancy, Stuck, Vick's Boy, The Messenger, Saved or Destroyed, Neil's Garden, My Special Friend, Faster, Bliss, St. Crispin's Day, Where We're Born, Five Flights, Boise, Finer Noble Gases, That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play, God Hates The Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny, Miss Julie, Acts of Mercy: passion-play, Cagelove, It Goes Without Saying, Dark Matters, Stay, American Sligo, Rag and Bone, War, Geometry of Fire, The Amish Project, Killers and Other Family, Post No Bills, Blind, Little Doc, underneathmybed, There Are No More Big Secrets, The Hallway Trilogy, Carson McCullers Talks About Love, The Wood, Asuncion, Horsedreams, Yosemite, Massacre (Sing to Your Children), 3C, Through the Yellow Hour, A Summer Day, The Revisionist starring Vanessa Redgrave and Jesse Eisenberg, Buyer & Cellar (2013 Drama Desk and Outer Critic Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance), Basilica, Charles Ives Take Me Home, One Night..., How to Make Friends and then Kill Them, The Correspondent, Ode to Joy, The Few, A FABLE, Phoenix, The Long Shrift, Pitbulls, Shesh Yak, Everything You Touch, The Undeniable Sound of Right Now, 'Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, America, Kuwait', the Off-Broadway GLAAD Award-nominated hit The Last Sunday in June, Craig Wright's The Pavilion (Drama Desk nominee-Outstanding Play of 2005) and Lady (Drama Desk nominee-Outstanding Play of 2008), The Aliens by Annie Baker (2010 Obie Award winner for Best New American Play), as well as The Hilltown Plays (2014 OBIE Award).

HAMLET IN BED plays Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday at 7pm; Thursday through Saturday at 8pm at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, west of Seventh Avenue South, between Perry and West 11 Streets. Preview tickets are priced at $25; tickets for regular performances are $35. Theater artist and Under 30 tickets are $10; student tickets are $5. Tickets may be purchased by visiting www.rattlestick.org or by phoning OvationTix at 866.811.4111. Memberships for Rattlestick's 2015-2016 season, which are priced at $83, are also available. Prices and performance schedule are subject to change. Please refer to the Rattlestick website for the most up-to-date information.