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Red Bull Theater presents John Webster's THE WHITE DEVIL
By: Rebecca Russo Nov. 28, 2016
Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, Artistic Director) today announced the complete cast for their next Revelation Reading on Monday December 5th (7:30pm) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street): John Webster's THE WHITE DEVIL, directed by Louisa Proske, featuring Tina Benko, Justin Blanchard, Kathleen Chalfant, Clifton Duncan, Danaya Esperanza, Allen Gilmore, Sheria Irving, Mark Nelson, Edward O'Blenis, Jeffrey Omura, Matthew Rauch, Rocco Sisto, and more. Remaining tickets are available at www.redbulltheater.com or by phone at (212) 352-3101.
Morality is torn to shreds as a passionate affair between the beautiful Vittoria and her lover, the Duke, unleashes a murderous revenge plot in this Jacobean potboiler. Although they are both married to other people, The Duke of Brachiano has conceived a violent passion for Vittoria Corombona, daughter of a noble but impoverished Venetian family. Vittoria's brother, Flamineo, employed as a secretary to Brachiano, has been scheming to bring his sister and the Duke together in the hope of advancing his career and their family fortune. But the arrival of Brachiano's wife Isabella, escorted by her brother and the Cardinal, forces their hands and the scheming quickly turns deadly.
John Webster was a Londoner born in 1578 or 1579, which made him about fifteen years younger than Shakespeare, and lived until the early 1630s. He was the son of a successful coachmaker, John Webster senior, whose business supplying coaches and wagons brought him into contact with London theater companies needing carts to transport their properties and costumes and into contact with those who built the yearly pageants for the Lord Mayor's celebrations. Tradition has it that the young John Webster was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School and the Middle Temple (London's training ground for lawyers), but the evidence for these claims is sparse. We know for certain that he married Sara Penial in March of 1606 when she was seven months pregnant, and that he began to write plays shortly after 1600. Like many dramatists of the period, much of Webster's career was spent in collaborative writing. In 1602 the theater manager Richard Henslowe lent money to Webster, Munday, Middleton, Drayton, and Webster to complete a play on the life of Julius Caesar for the Admiral's Men. That play is not extant, nor are many others upon which Webster worked; but we do have the two lively city comedies, Westward Ho and Northward Ho, that he wrote with Thomas Dekker in 1604 and 1605 for the Children of St. Paul's, and the history play, Sir Thomas Wyatt, printed in 1607, also a collaboration with Dekker. On his own, Webster wrote two of the greatest tragedies of the Jacobean period-The White Devil in 1612 and The Duchess of Malfi in 1614-and a tragicomedy, The Devil's Law Case, in 1617 or 1618. The later years of his career he wrote city comedies and tragicomedies in collaboration with Middleton, Rowley, Fletcher, and others.
Red Bull Theater's OBIE Award-winning Revelation Readings present staged readings of new and rarely performed classic plays from all eras and cultures. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as the cornerstone of our mission, Red Bull Theater is dedicated to the rediscovery and re-investigation of classics from all eras and cultures, and to the development of new plays of heightened language and classical themes. Revelation Readings provides a unique opportunity to hear these plays performed by many of the finest actors in New York.
Revelation Readings are Monday evenings at 7:30 PM, at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, between Bleecker and Hudson Streets). Tickets for Revelation Readings are $42, with Premium Seats available at $64. For complete list of Readings and up-to-date cast information for upcoming Readings, visit www.redbulltheater.com.
Red Bull Theater recently presented the acclaimed production of William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, directed by Michael Sexton, at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street at 7th Avenue). Hailed by The New York Times as a "Critic's Pick:" "You don't have to squint too hard to discern unsettling contemporary relevance in the Red Bull Theater's gripping new production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus... With the cast members wearing contemporary clothes - conservative suits or slouchy casual wear, depending on their class - the time, clearly, is now; the place, America. This is hardly an unusual approach for Shakespearean productions in any season, but Coriolanus, a late tragedy, exposes the dangerous rifts in the newly republican, deeply divided and highly stratified Roman society that ultimately led it to the brink of violent collapse. With this most disturbing presidential campaign drawing to a close, and Americans by the millions tearing their hair out, setting this particular play in a simulated United States of today carries greater weight." - Charles Isherwood, New York Times. The New Yorker declared this "a vital and even invigorating staging of an infrequently mounted play. Dion Johnstone, as Coriolanus, can evoke all the anxiety and exhilaration of a full battlefield with the emotions that play across his face, and Patrick Page, whose Menenius is conceived as a folksy Southern establishment politician, is an alchemist with the language, rendering his every line in rhythms that feel uncannily contemporary and American."
Up next: The Government Inspector, directed by Jesse Berger which will open this Spring at a theater to be announced. All politics are local. Gogol's deeply silly satire of small-town corruption offers a riotous portrait of rampaging self-delusion. When the crooked leadership of a provincial village discovers that an undercover inspector is coming to root out their commonplace corruption, the town weaves a web of bribery, lies, and utter madness. This New York Premiere of acclaimed playwright Jeffrey Hatcher's (Stage Beauty) adaptation offers a hilarious reminder of the timelessness of bureaucracy and buffoonery. Cast and design team, as well as performance schedule, will be announced shortly. Member tickets are available now. Single tickets will go on sale in March.
Red Bull Theater, hailed as "the city's gutsiest classical theater" by Time 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.
Acclaimed as "a dynamic producer of classic plays" by The New York Times, Red Bull Theater has previously staged productions of Pericles, The Revenger's Tragedy, Edward the Second, Women Beware Women, The Duchess of Malfi, The Witch of Edmonton, The Maids, The Dance of Death, Loot, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Volpone, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, as well as last season's hit productions of Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling and Sheridan's The School For Scandal. The company's work has been hailed as "the most exciting classical theater in New York" (Time Out New York), "Dynamite!" (The New York Times), "Triumphant" (Associated Press), and "Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years" (Variety).
Red Bull Theater's work has been recognized with multiple Drama Desk, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, Callaway and OBIE Award nominations and awards, including the Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Revival in the 2015-'16 season (School for Scandal). The company has staged nearly 150 Revelation Readings, named by the Village Voice "Best Play Reading Series," also developing new plays of heightened language and classical adaptations through workshops and offering educational programs for students of all ages. Post-play Bull Session discussions with scholars following select Sunday matinees and Readings are free and open to the public.
Red Bull Theater offers Master Classes throughout the year. 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 four 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 year-long training experience.
For tickets and more information, visit www.redbulltheater.com or call (212) 352-3101.
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