Curio Theatre Wraps Season with OEDIPUSSY, Now thru 5/24

Curio Theatre Company closes its season with the North American Premiere of Oedipussy, a creation of wildly inventive and hilarious United Kingdom based Spymonkey. Oedipussy is adapted by Emma Rice and written by Carl Grose and Spymokey. This fusion of James Bond and Greek tragedy begins previews tonight, April 24, opens Friday, May 2 at 8 p.m, and closes Saturday, May 24. All performances run Thursday-Saturday night at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $25-$20. Performances will take place in Curio's home base, the Calvary Center for Culture and Community at 4740 Baltimore Ave. Tickets and more information are available at www.curiotheatre.org or by phone at 215-525-1350.

The outrageous story of the ultimate dysfunctional family, this North American Premiere is James Bond meets Oedipus with imaginative storytelling and jaw-dropping physical comedy. The piece creates an outrageous no-holds-barred subversion of the quintessential Greek tragedy. Inspired by Barbarella and a little bit of Bond, this is a tale of the ultimate dysfunctional family: a jealous father, a messed-up son, and one mother of a brilliant comedy. The Times in London called the show, "Remarkable.Powerful. Joyful." The Guardian said, "'Riotous laughter. Funny but shocking."

The cast of this North American premiere and design team includes Curio Company members. Aetna Gallagher, Paul Kuhn, Brian McCann and Harry Slack round out the cast. The show is directed by John Bellomo. Andrew Thompson designs the set. Tim Martin is creating the lighting. Aetna Gallagher is designing the costumes. Drew Peterson is creating sound. Beth Johnson is the Stage Manager.

Spymonkey was founded by Toby Park, Petra Massey and Aitor Basauri in 1997. With their dark, edgy physical comedy that The Houston Chronicle said was rooted "somewhere between Monty Python, the Marx Brothers and Samuel Beckett," and a quartet of performers from Spain, Germany and England, Spymonkey have proved to be a truly international phenomenon, enjoyed by and accessible to a wide range of international audiences.

"I chose Oedipussy for season nine because of its broad appeal to audiences of all kinds. For those that know the story of Oedipus - its digression from the plot is truly hysterical," said Curio Artistic Director Paul Kuhn. "For those that don't, the physical comedy is more than enough to keep you engaged and laughing. Finally, I chose the play specifically for the spring so that people could just laugh and enjoy after a long winter. I didn't know, of course, that we would have had such a hard winter."

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