ARTicles vol. 7 i. 4: Welcome from the Acting Artistic Director

Dear Friends,

This issue of ARTicles will introduce you to the world premiere of Christine Evans’ Trojan Barbie, and Sex, Satire, Romance, and Ducks: A David Mamet Celebration—a festival of David Mamet’s comedies, with the farce Romance at its center.

Evans calls Trojan Barbie “a modern car-crash encounter with Euripides’ Trojan Women.” Lotte Jones, a lonely middle-aged doll repair expert, books herself on a “cultural holiday for singles” to Turkey. But something mysterious happens: rather than finding herself in the contemporary Middle East, Lotte somehow lands in an ancient war zone among the ruins of Troy. For me, the beauty of Evans’ play is that it holds past and present in perfect balance, allowing each to reflect off the other.

The season ends with dessert: a festival of comedies by David Mamet. This may give you pause for thought—Mamet’s plays, many of which have been premiered at the A.R.T. (Oleanna, The Cryptogram, The Old Neighborhood, Boston Marriage), are famous for their tough characters and clipped dialogue more than their humor. But in recent years Mamet has become something of a chameleon, turning his hand to many styles of film and theatre. Now, in Romance, Mamet is writing flat-out farce, and the result is an insanely funny confection.

We’re complementing Romance with two early comedies that launched Mamet’s career—Sexual Perversity in Chicago and The Duck Variations, to give you three very different tastes of this master playwright’s work.  Your festival experience will be completed with “Seriously Funny,” an evening of short comedies by Mamet, Shel Silverstein, and Harold Pinter, presented by the graduating class of the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training.

Best wishes,

Gideon Lester
Director, 08/09 Season