The Suicide - The Russian Comedy
By Nikolai Erdman
Tickets: Adults $15.00, Students/Seniors $12.00, Groups $10.00, eyeGo $5.00 H.S.T. extra
The Department of Dramatic Arts 2012/13 season opens on November 8 at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre with Nikolai Erdman's witty satire THE SUICIDE, “a spectacular mixture of the ridiculous and the sublime.”
Semyon is an ordinary man who, arguing with his wife about a sausage, accuses her of wishing him dead. This sets in motion a disastrous chain of misunderstandings in which Moscow’s shadiest characters each try to recruit him to kill himself for their own cause. Semyon survives their Lottery of Death only by means of a tuba, a drinking error, and a love for life so effervescent that he rebels against duty.
This play was written in difficult times, just before Stalin seized absolute control of Russia. Erdman’s mockery of the pretensions of pre- and post-Revolutionary worlds ultimately led Stalin to ban the play and exile Erdman to Siberia. The script was smuggled abroad in various versions, but Erdman never saw it realized. Today THE SUICIDE is recognized as one of the masterpieces of Soviet literature and drama.
This free adaptation created especially for the Department of Dramatic Arts was written by Gyllian Raby and Anna MacAlpine to emphasize Erdman’s love of slapstick, zany fantasy, and paradox by drawing on the lazzi of the Italian Commedia dell'Arte. Erdman’s comic vision of poverty, the dangers of celebrity, and the lure of political power shares an understanding with the current Occupy movement, and can still make any government gulp.
THE SUICIDE is directed by Gyllian Raby with set design by Nigel Scott, costume design by Roberta Doylend, and lighting by Ken Garrett. This mainstage production showcases the talents of students in Brock University’s Department of Dramatic Arts undergraduate program, including production and design students and the performers: Marcus Schwan, Kaitlin Race, Cassandra van Wyck, Derek Ewert, Justine Benteau, Rachel Romanowski, Brianne Lidstone, James Lowe, Nikki Morrison, Brent Cairns, Ioanna al Khayed, Karyn Lorence, Evan Mulrooney, Kanthan Annalingan, Sean Rintoul and Evan Bawtinheimer.
Raby has an affinity for intelligent, whacky comedy. Her productions of Shaw’s Passion, Poison and Petrifaction, the jazz/tap musical Fingers and Toes, and Jeffery Hatcher’s SMASH! have been widely enjoyed by audiences across Ontario. “This comedy is broad and bold,” states Raby, “and not for the faint of heart.”
Performances run: Thursday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 9 at 11:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Saturday, Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m., and will be held at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Brock University.
Tickets are $15 Adults; $12 Seniors/Students; $5 eyeGo high school ticket program; and Special Group rates are available from the Centre for the Arts Box Office: 905.688.5550 x 3257 or online at: http://arts.brocku.ca/
For more information about this production and the Department of Dramatic Arts visit: http://www.brocku.ca/humanities/departments-and-centres/dramatic-arts/events-at-dart
Such productions from the Department of Dramatic Arts are an integral part of the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts’ mandate in building connections between the community and the breadth of creative talent that defines our academic programs at Brock University.
Media Day: Thursday, November 1, 2012 at 6:00 p.m., held at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Brock University.
For interviews please contact: Marie Balsom, Communications Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts
T: 905-688-5550, ext. 4765 |
E: mbalsom@brocku.ca |
W: www.brocku.ca/finearts
| Thursday, November 8, 2012 | 7:30 p.m. |
| Friday, November 9, 2012 | 11:30 a.m. |
| Friday, November 9, 2012 | 7:30 p.m. |
| Saturday, November 10, 2012 | 7:30 p.m. |
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