Olympia Dukakis and More Set for HIPPOLYTOS, Red Bull Theater's Next 'Revelation Reading', 2/16

The next Revelation Reading, Euripides' HIPPOLYTOS, directed by Ted Pappas with Olympia Dukakis, Laila Robins, Robert Cuccioli, Clifton Duncan, Gina Daniels, Phillipe Bowgen, Catherine Gowl, Lara Hillier, January LaVoy, Deanne Lorette, Bhavesh Patel, Jean Tafler, and Edward James Hyland, will take place Monday, February 16th at Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street.

Can you control your love when the Gods are involved? Phaedra's overwhelming passion for her stepson is brought to vibrant life in a new translation by contemporary poet Anne Carson. This is the tale of a married woman stirred by her passion for a younger man, but with the epic Greek twists of forbidden desire and divine vengeance. One of Euripides' most admired plays, it is a masterpiece of tension, pathos, and dramatic power. The OBIE Award-Winning Revelation Readings series provides a unique opportunity to hear new and rarely-produced classic plays performed by many of the finest actors in New York.

The Hippolytos is like Venice. A system of reflections, distorted reflections, reflections that go awry. A system of corridors where people follow one another but never meet, never find the way out. There is no way out, all corridors lead back into the system. Hippolytos wants to be like Artemis, but even in death he is not allowed to see her face. Phaidra wants to be like Hippolytos, but she has not a single conversation with him in the course of the play. What might such a conversation have changed? What does the face matter? Both Hippolytos and Phaidra systematically avoid certain kinds of precariousness. If you asked Hippolytos to name his system he would say "shame". Oddly, if you asked Phaidra to name her system she would also say "shame". They do not mean the same thing by this word. Or perhaps they do. Too bad they never talk. Aidos ("shame") is a vast word in Greek. Its lexical equivalents include "awe, reverence, self-respect, shamefastness, sense of honor, sobriety, moderation, regard for others, regard for the helpless, compassion, shyness, coyness, scandal, dignity, majesty, Majesty." Shame vibrates with honor and also with disgrace, with what is chaste and with what is exotic, with coldness and also with blushing. Shame is felt before the eyes of others and also in facing oneself. To Phaidra most of all, shame is a split emotion. She calls it pleasure then divides it into two kinds: one good, one bad. Scholars disagree on what she means by this distinction but it is clear she believes shame of the bad kind can ruin her and that she must nullify it at any cost. For Hippolytos shame is simple. He personifies Shame as the goddess who guards his private meadow of virtue and celebrates her in his opening hymn to Artemis. Shame is a system of exclusions and purity that subtends Hippolytos' religion.

EURIPIDES, last of Athens' three great tragic dramatists following Aeschylus and Sophocles, was born about 480 B.C. He presented his first tragedies at the Great Dionysia in 455 B.C., but did not win his first victory until 441. This lack of recognition may have been due to the fact that Euripides did not cater to the fancies of the Athenian crowd. He was a pacifist, a free thinker, and a humanitarian in an age when such qualities were increasingly overshadowed by intolerance and violence. Perhaps that is why he chose to live much of his life alone in a cave on the island of Salamis. Despite this, 92 plays have survived intact, more than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly due to mere chance and partly because his popularity grew as theirs declined. He became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes and Menander. Forcing his characters to confront personal issues, not just questions of State, many consider Euripides the forerunner of the modern psychological dramatist. In Hippolytus and The Bacchae, he explores the psyche of men attempting to contain their sexual impulses. In Medea, it is the frenzied jealousy of a woman who has lost the interest of her middle-aged husband. Even his traditional nobles such as Agamemnon and Menelaus were anti-heroic, as if he wanted to show the Athenians what their beloved military heroes were really like. A few of his dramas, such as Helena, come surprisingly close to being comedies of character. Even in The Bacchae, he mixes comedy with the tragic form as Dionysus coaxes Pentheus into women's garments. By dissolving the rigid structure of tragedy, Euripides opened the door for new forms of drama.

ANNE CARSON is a poet, essayist, translator, playwright, and classicist. With her background in classical languages, comparative literature, anthropology, history, and commercial art, Carson blends ideas and themes from many fields in her writing. She frequently references, modernizes, and translates Greek mythology. She has published more than a dozen books, all of which blend the forms of poetry, essay, prose, criticism, translation, dramatic dialogue, fiction, and non-fiction. Anne Carson's translation of Sophokles' Antigone will premiere later this month at Théâtre National du Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Barbican in London, starring Juliette Binoche and directed by Ivo van Hove; the production will go on to tour London, Paris, and New York. Anne's adaptation of The Bakkhai, directed by James Macdonald and starring Ben Wishaw, is set to premiere this July at the Almeida Theatre in London. Anne is also currently collaborating with Simon McBurney on the cult classic Autobiography of Red. Classic Stage Company produced three of Carson's translations: Aeschylus' Agamemnon; Sophocles' Electra; and Euripides' Orestes (as An Oresteia), in repertory, as part of their 2008/2009 season. Works include: Red Doc>; Antigonick; Nox; If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (translation); The Beauty of The Husband; Men in the Off Hours; Economy of the Unlost; Autobiography of Red; Plainwater: Essays and Poetry;Glass, Irony and God; Eros the Bittersweet: An Essay; Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera; Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides (translation).

In addition to the upcoming Off-Broadway mainstage production of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Red Bull's Eleventh Season features an ongoing series of OBIE Award-winning Revelation Readings (Monday evenings at 7:30pm), presenting staged readings of new and rarely performed classic plays from all eras and cultures. Upcoming Readings include:

· March 2 - John Marston's The Dutch Courtesan - Directed by Michael Sexton with Hamish Linklater and Lily Rabe at Lucille Lortel Theatre;

· March 9 - John Ford's Perkin Warbeck - Directed by Carl Forsman with Brian D'Arcy James at Lucille Lortel Theatre;

· May 4 - John Ford's Love's Sacrifice - Directed by Craig Baldwin with Tina Benko and Christopher Innvar at Playwrights Horizons;

· June 29 - Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The School for Scandal - with Charles Busch and Everett Quinton at Lucille Lortel Theatre *The second of two Ridiculous collaborations with Busch and Quinton this season.

Tickets for Revelation Readings are $42 with Premium Seats available at $64. Become a Member and get them for only $25! (For complete list of Readings and updated cast information, visit www.redbulltheater.com). All artists subject to change.

Other special events include Master Classes February 20th - 24th with Olympia Dukakis.

This season's mainstage production, John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, directed by Berger, will begin a limited engagement April 14th at The Duke on 42nd Street. Opening Night is set for Sunday April 26th. What if Romeo and Juliet were brother and sister? Find out in this daring and provocative thriller. Red Bull Theater returns to its roots with the bloodiest and sexiest of all Jacobean tragedies. This heart-pounding tale of love, lust and hypocrisy is a deliciously perverse romantic tragedy. Siblings Annabella and Giovanni fall into an incestuous affair with a brutal velocity that sets Renaissance Parma aflame with its passionate force. Defiant in their desires to the bloody end, these lovers take "star-crossed" into a whole new galaxy. This crown jewel of Jacobean drama has scandalized and enthralled audiences for four centuries with its singular journey through the fires of desire. In its first major Off-Broadway production in 20 years, this rollicking ride will have your moral compass spinning wildly. Single tickets for 'Tis Pity She's a Whore go on sale January 5th for $62, with Premium Seats available at $84 at www.redbulltheater.com or at (212) 352-3101.

Red Bull Theater, hailed as "the city's gutsiest classical theater" byTime Out New York, is the not-profit Off-Broadway theater company specializing in plays of heightened language. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, Red Bull Theater embraces the imagination of theatergoers through intimate, imaginative productions of great classic stories from all eras and cultures. Red BullTheater's eleventh season builds upon their unique history and mission to present vital and imaginative renderings of heightened language plays from all eras and cultures as they launch a second decade of sharing great classic stories.

Acclaimed as "a dynamic producer of classic plays" by The New York Times, Red Bull Theater has previously staged productions of Shakespeare's Pericles, the anonymous Revenger's Tragedy, Marlowe's Edward the Second, Middleton's Women Beware Women, Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, the Off-Broadway premiere of Dekker, Ford & Rowley's The Witch of Edmonton, a major Off-Broadway revival of Jean Genet's The Maids, a new version of Strindberg's The Dance of Death by Mike Poulton, rare New York revivals of Loot and The Mystery of Irma Vep, and the first Off-Broadway revival of Volpone in over 50 years. The company's work has been hailed over the years as "the most exciting classical theater in New York" (Time Out New York), "Dynamite! (The New York Times), "the city's gutsiest classical theater" (Time Out New York), "Triumphant" (Associated Press), and "Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years" (Variety), among others.

Red Bull Theater's work has been recognized with multiple Callaway, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, and OBIE Award nominations and Awards. The company has staged over 125 readings through its ongoing OBIE Award-winning Revelation Readings, named by the Village Voice "Best Play Reading Series," and has developed new plays of heightened language and classical adaptations through its In-the-Raw workshop series. RedBull Theater reaches out to NYC students of all ages through "Direct Address" education programs teaching Shakespeare in middle schools and student matinees. Post-play "Bull Session" discussions with scholars following selected Sundaymatinees and Readings are free and open to the public.

Red Bull Theater offers Master Classes, Classical Acting Intensives and Workshops throughout the year and taught by top working professionals including Kathleen Chalfant, John Douglas Thompson, Olympia Dukakis, Heidi Griffiths, and Patrick Page, Red Bull Theater's intensives and workshops cover a variety of disciplines, including auditioning, text, voice, movement, clowning, stage combat, and acting Shakespeare. Classes are open to adults at all levels of training or experience. They range from one to six days with limited class sizes to allow one-on-one attention. You can enroll in any combination of classes, or take the whole series for a yearlong master training experience. Visit www.redbulltheater.com for complete details.

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