Rorschach Theatre Announces THE FIGS By Doug Robinson

Rorschach Theatre has announced THE FIGS by Doug Robinson, running February 14 – March 16, 2025, a moving journey through Rorschach's unique 2-story downtown storefront home The production will host Pay-What-You-Can Previews February 14, 15 & 16.

A fig-obsessed king's bizarre contest sets off a whirlwind adventure featuring quirky farmers, a lovesick innkeeper, and a chaotic storyteller. THE FIGS is a complex fable that deconstructs traditional storytelling with self-aware humor, queer characters, and unexpected twists.

THE FIGS will be an immersive experience, allowing the audience to live in the world of the play and move throughout our unique 2-level performance space.

ABOUT THE PLAY & PRODUCTION 

Rorschach's co-Artistic Director Randy Baker, along with a talented team of artists, will lead audiences on an unforgettable journey through Doug Robinson's epic and unexpected folk tale. Written as a balm to hopelessness, THE FIGS is not without its own peril and heartbreak. How do we lead with kindness in an unkind world?

Rorschach's temporary home at 1020 Connecticut Ave, a 2-story former men's clothing store, will transform into the sights and sounds of this beautiful journey through taverns, throne rooms, oceans, fig farms, and possibly an IKEA. 

Audiences will spend part of the play on foot experiencing the main character's adventures first hand. THE FIGS is ADA accessible. Visit rorschachtheatre.com or contact the company at info@rorschachtheatre.com for more information.

"Deeply chaotic, intensely beautiful, and utterly indelible, I first encountered Doug Robinson's monumental fairy tale when I directed a reading of it at Avant Bard Theatre a few years ago," says director Randy Baker. "Surprising in its structure and complexity, I was drawn to both its unhinged humor and its hard-fought optimism. Hope and kindness aren't easily won but they are worth fighting for.

THE FIGS features performers Katrina Clark, Lisette Gabrielle, Mollie Greenberg, Abel Haddish, Rebecca Husk, Charlotte Kim, Robert Pike, and Arika Thames

The design and Production Team includes August Henney as Set Designer, Cody Von Ruden as Costume Designer, Ben Harvey as Lighting Designer, Michael Winch as Sound Designer, and Aoife Creighton as Props Designer, and Kylos Brannon as Video Designer, with Sophia Menconi as Stage Manager and Lorraine Ressegger as Fight and Intimacy Choreographer.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT & DIRECTOR

Doug Robinson (Playwright) is a  playwright who earned his MFA in playwriting from the  Yale  School of Drama. His play Capture the Flag was a recipient of  the inaugural Reimagine Theatre for Young Audiences grant and a finalist for the 2024 O'Neil New Play Conference. 

The Figs was workshopped and developed as a part of Avant Bard Theatre's “Scripts in Play” and received its world premiere at American Stage Theatre Company in Florida.

Robinson's plays have been commissioned at myriad theaters throughout the Washington D.C. metro area including  The Kennedy Center Young Audiences, Faction of Fools, Rorschach Theatre, Ally Theatre Company, and Imagination Stage. He has also worked as a teaching artist at Imagination Stage, The Theatre Lab, and Adventure Theatre and as an actor has performed with various Shakespeare companies along the East coast.

Randy Baker (Director) is a playwright, director, and the co-Artistic Director of Rorschach Theatre in Washington DC. 

Recent shows he has directed with Rorschach include Very Still and Hard to See (Five Helen Nominations including Best Director), Chemical Exile: Synthesis, She Kills Monsters, The Electric Baby, The Minotaur and After the Quake. Some recent shows he has directed outside of Rorschach include the seven-room living installation piece, Hello, My Name Is… at The Welders (Three Helen Hayes nominations including Best Director), a shadow puppet gamelan-inspired A Midsummer Night's Dream at WSC Avant Bard, Big Love at Catholic University, Anon/ymous at Georgetown University and his own adaptation of Rashōmon at American University. 

Recent plays he has written include the world premieres of Forgotten Kingdoms and Truth & Beauty Bombs at Rorschach Theatre and workshops and educational productions of The Burning Road (Arena Stage), Monastery (Theater J), Rashōmon (American University and Spooky Action Theatre), and Between Days and Medea: A Teenage Revenge Tragedy (Theatre Lab). He is currently developing an adaptation of The Legend of Hang Tuah (a retelling of the Malay Legend with shadow puppets and martial arts), collaborating with artists in Singapore and Malaysia.

Learn more about Rorschach's 25 years of groundbreaking theatre in Washington DC at https://rorschachtheatre.com/about-us/mission/.

To post a comment, you must register and login.