RAMBO SOLO Extends At Soho Rep Thru 4/19

Due to popular demand, Soho Rep - the nine-time OBIE Award-winning, Off-Broadway theatre company - will extend its critically acclaimed production of Nature Theater of Oklahoma's RAMBO SOLO by one week - through April 19th, it has been announced by Soho Rep's Artistic Director Sarah Benson.

Nature Theater of Oklahoma's actor Zachary Oberzan has had a deep connection with the story of "Rambo: First Blood" since he was a boy of ten. He first saw the Hollywood blockbuster during one magical weekend spent watching free HBO. He knows the story by heart - but can he navigate all the perilous twists and turns of his own obsession with it? Set in the dark heart of Zack's tiny New York studio apartment, RAMBO SOLO follows one man's private passion to its limits, as he struggles to re-enact the entire First Blood story in all its sweaty dramatic detail.

Re-inventing Soho Rep's space, RAMBO SOLO takes us into Zack's world as he attempts to remember and retell the events of First Blood. Counter pointing video, audio and the actor himself, RAMBO SOLO follows Zack's mighty struggle to tell a simple story.

RAMBO SOLO is conceived &directed by Nature Theater of Oklahoma founders Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper; features Zachary Oberzan; and has production and video design by Peter Nigrini.

RAMBO SOLO opened Off-Broadway at Soho Rep on Saturday, March 21st to a host of enthusiastic reviews: "One man's pulp is another man's perfection. If you follow Zachary Oberzan down the rabbit-hole of his character's lapel-grabbing enthusiasm in RAMBO SOLO you may emerge starry-eyed and wondering," stated Charles Isherwood of The New York Times. "Nature Theater of Oklahoma, which has forged a sharp, witty and utterly distinctive performance style...has hit the mother lode in RAMBO SOLO," exclaimed Marilyn Stasio of Variety. "5 stars...you will be pitching and yawing with laughter ... profound and delightful," said Helen Shaw of Time Out New York. "Bizarre and often hilarious ... it is unlike any one-person show I've ever encountered," exclaimed Dan Bacalzo of TheaterMania. "RAMBO SOLO is brilliant theatre...the best kind of art," stated David Ian Lee or NYTheatre.com; and "a one-of-a-kind show," said Jenny Sandman of CurtainUp.com.

Prior to its engagement at Soho Rep this spring, RAMBO SOLO toured Europe, playing venues in Hamburg, Germany; The Netherlands; and Belgium. In Europe, RAMBO SOLO was met with such critical praise as: "hilarious...the Nature Theater of Oklahoma certainly has many new fans in Germany" from Hamburg Morgenpost; and "Nature Theater of Oklahoma presents with subtle means a multitude of worrying thoughts about identity, a liquid separation between reality and fiction, and the difference between low and high culture as well as your own prejudices about this. One never could imagine that they could get so much from Rambo," from Telegraaf, in Holland.

Nature Theater of Oklahoma -- whose recent productions include NO DICE at Soho Rep, and POETICS: A BALLET BRUT at Under-the-Radar in '08 -- works in a new tradition that is akin to Elevator Repair Service, The Wooster Group and Richard Maxwell.

Last season, Nature Theater of Oklahoma's NO DICE at Soho Rep was met with such critical raves as "NO DICE is a tour de force...that rare, wondrous type of theatrical sustenance: You leave blissful and sated, yet wanting more," from The New York Times; "brilliant and humorous...immensely entertaining and one of the most original performance that I've had the pleasure to attend," from TheaterMania.com; and "funny and touching" from Time Out New York.

Nature Theater of Oklahoma is a New York company formed under the direction of Pavol Liska and Kelly Copper. The company takes its name from the last chapter of Kafka's unfinished first novel AMERIKA.

Now in its 33rd year, Soho Rep's 2008-09 season is the second under the leadership of Artistic Director, Sarah Benson, and the first for new Executive Director, Tania Camargo. This is the second season the company will operate as an Off-Broadway company after decades of presenting work in the off-off-Broadway arena. One of the company's most popular and innovative programming features from last year -- 99-cent tickets for all Sunday performances of main stage productions throughout the year - continues this season, as well.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director Sarah Benson and Executive Director, Tania Camargo, Soho Rep is dedicated to cultivating and producing visionary, uncompromising, and exuberant new plays. They perform to one of the youngest adult audiences in New York City, with over three-quarters of its audience aged 18-40.

Over the last nine seasons, Soho Rep productions have garnered nine OBIE Awards -- most recently NO DICE by Nature Theater of Oklahoma, and playwright Adam Bock and director Anne Kauffman for THE THUGS -- four Drama Desk nominations for their critically acclaimed production of FRANKENSTEIN and the Oppenheimer Award for EVERYTHING WILL BE DIFFERENT. In recent years, Soho Rep has presented plays by established and emerging theatre artists such as Richard Maxwell, Mac Wellman, Melissa James Gibson, Young Jean Lee and The Flying Machine. Earlier this season Soho Rep presented the New York premiere of Sarah Kane's BLASTED, and co-produced with Page 73 Productions Dan LeFranc's SIXTY MILES TO SILVER LAKE.

Scheduled March 19 through April 19, performances of RAMBO SOLO run Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays & Sundays at 7:30pm at Soho Rep (46 Walker Street - between Broadway & Church, 2 blocks south of Canal Street). Tickets are 99 cents for all Sunday performances; $25 for performances through April 12; and $35 for performances during the week extension and can be reserved by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101 or online at www.sohorep.org.

For additional information visit www.sohorep.org or www.oktheater.org.

 

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