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Event
Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano - A Celebration of Philadelphia Theatre Week!
The collapse of reality, a tragedy of language: classic Absurdism freshly conceived!
Ionesco interprets a world gone awry -- causality means nothing, facts don't exist, numbers don't add up, names have no validity, existence is surreal. A comedy for our time, at Bethany Mission Gallery, the ultimate evening of Idiopathic outsider art in celebration of Philadelphia Theatre Week!
Featuring:
Tina Brock
Tomas Dura
Carlos Forbes
Sonja Robson
Bob Schmidt
John Zak
Directed by Tina Brock
Translated by Donald M. Allen
February 6 through February 16
Bethany Mission Gallery
1527 Brandywine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Tickets: $25
http://BaldSoprano.bpt.me or call 215.285.0472 or email info@idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.org
Thursday - Sunday - $25
Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 pm, with one Sunday matinee at 2:30 pm
Seating is limited. Early arrival is encouraged.
The gallery is open one hour before and after each performance to view the collection.
Inquire about student, senior, industry and group discounts.
IRC. We bring good nothingness to life.
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Alternative Facts, Communication Gone Awry:
Eugene Ionescos The Bald Soprano at The Bethany Mission Gallery
The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, celebrating 15 years producing classic absurdist plays in the Philadelphia region, presents Eugene Ionescos tragicomic commentary on the futility of communication, The Bald Soprano, running Thursday, February 6 through Saturday, February 16, in celebration of Philadelphia Theatre Week.
The Bald Soprano cast features IRC founders Bob Schmidt and Tina Brock as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, John Zak and Sonja Robson as Mr. and Mrs. Martin, Tomas Dura as Mary the Maid, and Carlos Forbes as The Fireman. The Bald Soprano production/design team includes Erica Hoeslcher (Set and Costume Design) and Tina Brock (Sound Design). Producing Artistic Director Tina Brock will direct. Curtain for The Bald Soprano is 7:30 pm Thursday - Saturday, Sunday matinees at 2:30 PM. Tickets are available at BaldSoprano.bpt.me, the IRC box office at 215.285.0472.
The Bethany Mission Gallery, in PhiladelphiaS Spring Garden neighborhood, will serve as the backdrop for The Bald Soprano. A private collection featuring over two hundred works of outsider art, the gallery will be open to the public one hour before curtain. On display: an unusual collection of rare drawings, paintings and object collections including folk art, Catalin radios, antique metal toys and banks, milk glass, ceramic pot lids, posters, signage, photographs and antique toasters.
Eugene Ionescos classic treatise on the futility of meaningful communication in modern society, The Bald Soprano was the first play written by the Romanian-French playwright. Ionesco envisioned The Bald Soprano as a tragedy of language when he was inspired to write the play while attempting to learn English from a primer. Audiences responded as if he had written a comedy, and so the legend began: The Bald Soprano has been in performance since 1957 at the Théâtre de la Huchette in Paris, holding the world record for a play having been staged continuously in the same theatre for the longest span of time.
A strange phenomenon took place the text began imperceptibly to change before my eyes... the clichés and truisms of the conversation primer which once made sense gave way to pseudo-clichés and pseudotruisms; these disintegrated into wild caricature and parody, and in the end language disintegrated into disjointed fragments of words. -- Playwright Eugene Ionesco on writing The Bald Soprano
The question was posed by many when the IRC was formed fifteen years ago, if sufficient material existed in the absurdist canon to forge a robust future. The reality today is that life off stage is far more absurd than Ionesco's plays might ever have predicted. There is illumination in his words as we struggle to hold fast to the value of the truth and meaning of language: misuse creates confusion, dissonance and distortion.
The stage at The Bethany Mission Gallery, and globally, has been set for a tragedy of surreal and highly comedic proportions.
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LocationThe Bethany Mission Gallery (View)
1527 Brandywine Street
Philadelphia, PA 19130
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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