Gamm Opens Season with Caryl Churchill Double Bill!, 9/12-10/13

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre(The Gamm) opens Season 29 with an exciting and provocative double bill of one-act plays by acclaimed British playwright Caryl Churchill (Top Girls, Cloud Nine). A Number, directed by Gamm Resident Director Judith Swift, and Far Away, directed by Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella, explore the perhaps not so distant future by way of science fiction and fable.

The pairing of A Number and Far Away runs from September 12 through October 13 at The Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket, RI.Tickets are $38 and $48 (depending on day/time); preview and press performances (September 12-16) are just $28. Discounts for subscribers, groups of 10 or more, seniors and students. Tickets at 401-723-4266 orgammtheatre.org.

A Number, Churchill's father-son drama set in a world in which people can be cloned, features Gamm Resident Actor Jim O'Brien (Thomas Cromwell in Anne Boleyn) and Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella(Henry in The Real Thing). Far Away envisions a world in which violence looms large and nothing - not even nature - is to be trusted. The cast of four includes Gamm Resident Actor Casey Seymour Kim (Mel in After the Revolution), MariAnna Bassham (Charlotte in The Real Thing), Alexander Platt (Paul in Paul), and Gamm newcomer Lauren Durkin.

Estrella said he's delighted to launch a new season with two works that so powerfully resonate with world events today.

"Caryl Churchill celebrates her 75th birthday just as we are opening Season 29 with this stunning double bill. For four decades she has been at the forefront of her art form and continues to write plays for tomorrow," Estrella noted. "Far Away and A Number peek just over the horizon to see where the human race is heading - perhaps 'careening recklessly' would be more apt. A classic father-son drama with an unsettling bioethical twist and a parable of eco-human immolation combine for a powerful up-to-the minute reckoning of who we are now and what we might become."

ABOUT A NUMBER

How would it feel to discover that you were just one of a number of identical copies of yourself? AcclaimEd English playwright Caryl Churchill ponders this disturbing question and more in her gripping two-person play set in a near-future world in which people can be cloned. About 30 years before the play's beginning, a man named Salter consulted a genetic scientist to have a child created in the image of his first-born son. But now he must face the shocking consequences of his experiment gone wrong: three strikingly different incarnations of his son. Mesmerizing and provocative, A Number tackles the very nature of human individuality through a science-fiction lens.

ABOUT FAR AWAY

A young girl, woken by a scream, can't sleep because of the disturbing things she's seen outside her window. Her aunt, eerily calm in the next room, tries to explain it away. But what is really happening? A charming young couple falls happily in love while making elaborate, fanciful hats to be worn in a parade. But where is the procession heading? So unfolds Far Away, Churchill's dream-like play that gradually becomes a dystopian nightmare. Genocide, environmental disaster, and everyday brutality are combined in this spellbinding fable of a society, and eventually a world, at war with itself. But is it all as far away as we would like to think?

ABOUT THIS PRODUCTION

A Number by Caryl Churchill, directed by Judith Swift

Far Away by Caryl Churchill, directed by Tony Estrella

Set Design by Michael McGarty

Costume Design by David T. Howard

Sound Design by Charles Cofone

Stage Management by Jessica Hill*

Assistant Director, Steve Kidd; Production Manager, Jessica Hill;Assistant Stage Manager, JonPaul Rainville; Props Master/Scenic Artist, Carrie Capizzano

CAST

A Number

Salter, Jim O'Brien*
Bernard 1/Bernard 2/Michael Black, Tony Estrella*

Far Away

Harper, Casey Seymour Kim*
Joan, MariAnna Bassham*
Todd, Alexander Platt*

Young Joan, Lauren Durkin

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

CALENDAR OF PERFORMANCES (Please note! Thursday night performances now start at 7 pm)

SEPTEMBER

Thursday, Sept. 12 preview at 7

Friday, Sept. 13 preview at 8

Saturday, Sept. 14 preview at 8

Sunday, Sept. 15 preview at 7

Monday, Sept. 16 press at 7
Thursday, Sept. 19 at 7

Friday, Sept. 20 at 8

Saturday, Sept. 21 at 8

Sunday, Sept. 22 at 2*

Sunday, Sept. 22 at 7

Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 7

Thursday, Sept. 26 at 7

Friday, Sept. 27 at 8

Saturday, Sept. 28 at 8

Sunday, Sept. 29 at 2

Sunday, Sept. 29 at 7

OCTOBER

Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 7

Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 7

Thursday, Oct. 3 at 7

Friday, Oct. 4 at 8

Saturday, Oct. 5 at 8

Sunday, Oct. 6 at 2

Sunday, Oct. 6 at 7

Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7

Thursday, Oct. 10 at 7

Friday, Oct. 11 at 8

Saturday, Oct. 12 at 8

Sunday, Oct. 13 at 2

Sunday, Oct. 13 at 7

ABOUT THE GAMM THEATRE

Founded in 1984 as Alias Stage, the non-profit Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre creates the finest of live theater, engaging the audience intensely in current and recurrent issues of consequence. The Gamm further serves the public with educational outreach programming designed to support the theatrical experience, and help sustain and enhance the intellectual and cultural life of its community. The Gamm is a member of New England Area Theatre (NEAT), a bargaining unit of the Actors' Equity Association.

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