Wooolly Mammoth Presents HELL MEETS HENRY HALFWAY 2/2-3/1

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues its 2008-09 Season with Hell Meets Henry Halfway, conceived and created by the Pig Iron Theatre Company, with text by Adriano Shaplin, after Possessed by Polish novelist Witold Gombrowicz. The Pig Iron production, directed by Dan Rothenberg, performs February 2 to March 1, 2009, beginning with two Pay-What-You-Can performances on February 2 and 3 at 8pm. Woolly Mammoth is located at 641 D Street, NW (7th & D).

In the hands of Philadelphia-based Pig Iron Theatre Company, unorthodox texts are guaranteed to explode into fearlessly physical performances.  This famed company transforms Polish novelist Witold Gombrowicz’ gothic mystery, Possessed, into an orgiastic celebration of nihilism.  Set amid a decaying Eastern European aristocracy, a prince lays dying while his bitter secretary, Henry, schemes and waits for a bit of an inheritance.  Add a creepy alchemist, an oversexed fiancée and an egocentric tennis coach, and the results turn darkly existential. A pitch-black comedy full of florid insults and absurd cruelties dressed in tennis whites.  Winner of a 2005 OBIE Award.

Adriano Shaplin is a co-founder of the internationally acclaimed Riot Group and has served as the company's resident playwright since 1997.  He is the author of eight plays for the company including Why I Want to Shoot Ronald Reagan, Wreck the Airline Barrier, The Zero Yard, Victory at the Dirt Palace, Pugilist Specialist, Switch Triptych, and Hearts of Man.  He is a four-time recipient of the Scotsman Fringe First Award.  In 2006 Adriano became the first International Playwright-in-Residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company.  His first play for the RSC, The Tragedy of Thomas Hobbes, opened in London in 2008.  In 2009 Adriano will be collaborating with Riot Group and New Paradise Labs to create two new plays: Ruby Ruby Ridge and John Wilkes Booth.

The cast of Hell Meets Henry Halfway includes Pig Iron company members Gabriel Quinn Bauriedel, Sarah Sanford, James Sugg, and Dito van Reigersberg with Steve Cuiffo, James O. Dunn, and Bel Garcia.

Dan Rothenberg is a founding member and co-artistic director of Pig Iron Theatre Company. He has directed almost all of Pig Iron's original performance works, including Poet in New York, Gentlemen Volunteers, Love Unpunished, Isabella, The Lucia Joyce Cabaret, Chekhov Lizardbrain, and the OBIE Award-winning Hell Meets Henry Halfway. In 2001, Dan co-directed Shut Eye with Joseph Chaikin. Together with Quinn Bauriedel and Dito van Reigersberg, Dan received a Pew Fellowship in Performance Art in 2002. In 2009, Dan will direct the English-language premiere of Toshiki Okada's Enjoy in New York.

Hell Meets Henry Halfway is performed February 2 to March 1, 2009 at 641 D Street, NW (7th & D).  Schedule: Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 2pm and 7pm (no 2pm performance February 8).  Tickets range from $26-60 (Previews, 1st week: Wednesday and Thursday evenings - $36 & $26; Saturday evening - $55 & $45; Regular price: Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings - $48 & $38; Friday evenings and Sunday matinees - $55 & $45; Saturday evenings - $60 & $50).  Tickets can be purchased at 202-393-3939 or online at www.woollymammoth.net.

There will be concessions and special events for the show and they are as follows:

      • Woolly's "25 and Under" program offers $15 tickets to all performances for patrons 25.  ID required; tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door one hour prior to show time.

      • Pay-what-you-can (PWYC) The first two previews of all main stage productions. PWYC for HELL MEETS HENRY HALFWAY is Monday, February 2 and Tuesday, February 3 at 8pm. Tickets are sold beginning at 6:30pm each evening; lines begin forming at 6pm. There is a two ticket per person limit and tickets are cash or check Only.  For further information on Pay-What-You-Can: 202-393-3939 or www.woollymammoth.net.

      • Stampede Seats, Woolly's rush-seat program, offers a limited number of side balcony tickets at $15. All performances, seats sold beginning 2 hours prior to show-time, in-person only.

      •     Meet the Artists Post-Show Discussions on Wed., February 11 (after 8pm show); Sun., February 15 (after 2pm show); Thurs., February 19 (after 8pm show).

      •     Club Woolly Night is a subscription series (the second Friday of each main stage production) that includes a post-show reception with the cast. Club Woolly Night for Hell Meets Henry Halfway is Fri., February 13 (8pm); individual tickets are $45 or $55 plus a $15 fee for the reception.

Now in its 29th Season, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues to hold its place at theatre’s leading edge. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann, Woolly Mammoth is acknowledged as “Washington’s most daring theatre company” (The New York Times), as a regional and national leader in the development of new plays, and as one of the best known and most influential small theatres in America. 

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is a member of the National New Play Network, Theatre Communications Group, The League of Washington Theatres, and The Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, and a participant in the A-ha! Program: Think it, Do it, funded by MetLife and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for the American theatre.  The Theatre’s programs are supported in part by The National Endowment for the Arts, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program/United States Commission of Fine Arts.

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