Donnie Darko

During the presidential election of 1988, Donnie Darko, a troubled teenager, encounters a six-foot rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. Donnie returns home to discover that a jet engine has crashed through his bedroom—and so begins one of the strangest and most haunting stories ever told.

A new adaptation of the 2001 cult film (which featured Drew Barrymore and shot Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal to fame), Donnie Darko is a mind-bending work of science fiction with a rollercoaster plot that leaps from metaphysics to time travel. Marcus Stern, director of The Onion Cellar returns to Zero Arrow Theater to create this stage version of one of the most talked-about films of the past decade.

SYNOPSIS

Late one evening in 1988 a giant bunny rabbit named Frank lures brilliant but troubled teen Donnie Darko out of his suburban home to give him a message: the world will end in 28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes, and 12 seconds. When Donnie returns home a wrecked jet engine lies smoldering in what remains of his bedroom. Thus begins Donnie’s race against time to find the reasons behind the mysterious occurrences surrounding him and his loved ones. As the countdown continues, Frank keeps appearing to Donnie, issuing instructions that provoke him to wreak havoc around his school and town. Meanwhile, Donnie begins to see strange, liquid worms protruding out of himself and people around him. Through the help of Frank, his high school science teacher Dr. Monnitoff, his high school English teacher, his psychiatrist, and a book titled The Philosophy of Time Travel written decades ago by a local centenarian known around town as Grandma Death, Donnie eventually realizes that these serpentine wormholes may allow for the possibility of time travel. Bit by bit, he pieces together clues and signs that help him understand how he could use the wormholes to save the world from impending doom and destruction.

“Mad World” performed by Michael Andrews, featuring Gary Jules, courtesy of Everloving, Inc.

Donnie Darko is produced by special arrangement with Matthew Garrity.

production sponsors Michael Roitman and Emily A. Karstetter