Spooky Action Announces Its 2017-18 Season

Surprising. Cerebral. Intoxicating. Mysterious. Thrilling. Prescient. These are just a few of the adjectives used to describe Spooky Action Theater productions in recent years. And these are also perfect adjectives to portray its 2017-2018 Season.

"It's a season that defies logic. That transcends and steps behind the façade of reality," says Artistic Director Richard Henrich. "We love theater because here our emotions, instincts and gut level reactions all step out from behind the scenes to share in the limelight. Our rational thoughts act like they know everything - and we know they don't!"

In the Fall, Spooky Action proudly hosts the DC premiere of I Killed My Mother. For the first time, local audiences will be introduced to the cutting-edge work of Romanian ethnic-Hungarian playwright András Visky, one of the most esteemed contemporary playwrights of Eastern Europe. Directed by Natália Gleason Nagy, who previously produced the London premiere in 2012, I Killed My Mother is the story of Bernadette, an orphan who survives cruelty and neglect in early childhood to become a free and independent force as an adult.

"In Andras Visky's Mother, Bernadette - when faced with a damaging 'reality' - finds refuge and solace in an alternate reality populated with true emotion, friendship and love that sits at the heart of her being," says Henrich. "She may call it the Realm of Never, but it is really the enduring land of Always."

In the Winter, Spooky Action partners with Georgetown University's Department of Performing Arts to present The Lathe of Heaven as part of Washington DC's Women's Voices' Festival. Adapted by Natsu Onoda Power from the book by Ursula K. Le Guin, the play is a classic tale of speculative fiction. Written in 1971, but originally set in 2002, The Lathe of Heaven describes a world not so different from ours today, with a massive war in the Middle East, and global warming challenging the quality of life. Then, a dreamer discovers his dreams unpredictably alter reality. Could that be the answer - or the end!

The theater's 2017-2018 season concludes in the Spring with The Small Room at the Top of the Stairs by award-winning French Canadian playwright Carole Fréchette and her acclaimed translator John Murrell. Grace lives like a princess in a fairy tale come true - a wealthy husband who adores her, a 28-room mansion where she can roam every room. Every room but one. And Grace cannot resist looking into it.

"The Small Room, off limits, actually contains a primal core of meaning. Without that core, all the elegant world surrounding is merely a fairy tale possessed of the alluring power to delude," says Henrich.

Spooky Action's plays this season step behind the scenes to experience the magical reality that truly animates our lives!

Visit www.spookyaction.org for details and more information or call 202-248-0301.

To post a comment, you must register and login.