Red Bull Theater to Kick Off New Season of Revelation Readings With THE RELAPSE in October

RED BULL THEATER has announced the kick-off of a new season of in-person OBIE Award-winning Revelation Readings, beginning with The Relapse by John Vanbrugh, directed by Marc Vietor. The cast will feature Arnie Burton (Red Bull Theater: The Mystery of Irma Vep - Drama League nomination, The Government Inspector; Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher, Machinal - Roundabout; A Free Man of Color - Lincoln Center Theater; Off-Bway: The 39 Steps; The Temperamentals; Lewiston/Clarkston - Drama Desk nomination); Stephen DeRosa (Red Bull: The Alchemist, The Government Inspector; Broadway: Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus, The Nance, Into the Woods, The Man Who Came to Dinner); Ismenia Mendes (Red Bull: Mac Beth, CSC's The Liar, Cressida in NYSF's Troilus & Cressida); Jacob Ming-Trent (Red Bull: The Alchemist, Falstaff in Shakespeare in the Park's Merry Wives, Lortel Award winner - Father Comes Home From the Wars..., Panda in HBO's "Watchmen"); Amelia Pedlow (Red Bull Theater: The Metromaniacs, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore; Pride and Prejudice - Primary Stages; The Liar, The Heir Apparent - CSC); Reg Rogers (Red Bull: The Alchemist; upcoming: Merrily We Roll Along at New York Theatre Workshop; B'way: Tootsie, The Royal Family - OCC nominations; The Iceman Cometh, Present Laughter, The Big Knife, Holiday - Tony and Drama Desk nominations; The Dazzle - OBIE and Lucille Lortel Awards); Chauncy Thomas (To Kill a Mockingbird - Bay Street Theatre, Much Ado About Nothing - St. Louis Shakespeare Festival); Michael Urie (B'way: Torch Song, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Red Bull: The Government Inspector; TV: "The Good Wife," "Ugly Betty"); Ayana Workman (Red Bull: Mac Beth; The Price of Thomas Scott - Mint, Juliet in NYSF's Romeo & Juliet); Jesse Epstein (recent graduate of The Juilliard School). and more to be announced.

This event will premiere LIVE, in person, at Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theater at Symphony Space (2537 Broadway at 95th Street) at 7:30 PM ET on October 24th. The performance will be simulcast that evening and the recording will be available until Sunday October 30th at 11:59 PM ET.

The Relapse is a riotous Restoration comedy subtitled Virtue in Danger. A reformed rake succumbs to temptation with a new love affair while his wife is subjected to a determined seduction attempt. Meanwhile, the fabulous Lord Foppington flamboyantly flirts about town before leaving to marry a country wife - but his rakish brother is determined to get there first. The Relapse was written in 1696 by John Vanbrugh as a sequel to Colley Cibber's comedy Love's Last Shift (1696).

John Vanbrugh

(1664 - 1726), playwright, theater manager, and architect, was the eldest surviving son of twenty (!) children of a London cloth-merchant of Flemish descent. A committed Whig, he supported the armed invasion of William of Orange, the deposition of James Ii, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. He was arrested in France, charged with espionage, and imprisoned for four years. His two best-known plays, The Relapse and The Provok'd Wife, were very successful and remained in the repertoire for seventy-five years. Vanbrugh designed and built the Haymarket Theatre, which he managed along with William Congreve and the actor Thomas Betterton. Their intent was to improve conditions for actors, which had deteriorated under the monopoly on theater production held by the United Company under the unscrupulous management of Christopher Rich, and to compete with other increasingly popular forms of entertainment: pantomime, juggling, animal acts and traveling opera companies. Vanbrugh also designed Blenheim Palace, even though he had no formal training as an architect. The Duke of Marlborough met him at the theater (or at the Kit-Kat-Club, a social club for prominent Whigs) and was so charmed he offered him the job. The Duchess, however, was unhappy with the choice. She wanted Sir Christopher Wren, architect of St. Paul's Cathedral, and criticized the extravagance of Vanbrugh's design. At age 55, Vanbrugh married a woman half his age. He was knighted in 1714.

RED BULL THEATER

brings rarely seen classic plays to dynamic new life for contemporary audiences, uniting a respect for tradition with a modern sensibility. Named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, Red Bull Theater is New York City's home for dynamic performances of great plays that stand the test of time. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, the company also produces new works that are in conversation with the classics. A home for artists, scholars, and students, Red Bull Theater delights and engages the intellect and imagination of audiences, and strives to make its work accessible, diverse, and welcoming to all. We value and practice inclusiveness, equity, and diversity in all of our activities, and are committed to antiracist action. Red Bull Theater believes in the power of great classic stories and plays of heightened language to deepen our understanding of the human condition, in the special ability of live theater to create unique, collective experiences, and in the timeless capacity of classical theater to illuminate the events of our times. Variety agreed, hailing Red Bull's work as: "Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years."

Since its debut in 2003 with a production of Shakespeare's Pericles starring Daniel Breaker, Red Bull Theater has served adventurous theatergoers with Off-Broadway productions, Revelation Readings, and the annual Short New Play Festival. The company also offers outreach programs including Shakespeare in Schools bringing professional actors and teaching artists into public school classrooms; Bull Sessions, free post-play discussions with top scholars; and Classical Acting Intensives led by veteran theater professionals. During the pandemic, Red Bull created several new and ongoing programs to serve audiences and artists with our mission: RemarkaBULL Podversations, Online Readings, Seminars, and more.

"The classics-shaking Red Bull Theater," as Time Out NY has called it, has presented 20 Off-Broadway productions and nearly 200 Revelation Readings of rarely seen classics, serving a community of more than 5,000 artists and providing quality artistic programming to an audience of over 65,000. The company's unique programming has received ongoing critical acclaim and has been recognized with Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway, Off-Broadway Alliance, and OBIE nominations and Awards.

For more information about any of Red Bull Theater's programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.