Événement

Elephant Calf and Trial of Lucullus

Directed by Ria Blaas
Produced by Duncan Nichols and Jim Schley
Lighting Design by Brian Kenyon

with Antoinette Jacobson, Becky Bailey, Don Kollisch, Duncan Nichols, Erik Gaetz, Geoffrey Gardner, Jayn Keller, Jim Schley, Kate Magill, Lindsay Putnam, Soren Lavoie, and Susanna Lewis

These two one-act plays were written by Bertolt Brecht at moments of social upheaval and impending war. Brecht was one of the twentieth century's fiercest theatrical jesters, and these rarely performed pieces have lost none of their skewering satirical wit.

In THE ELEPHANT CALF (written in the early 1920s) a troupe of wacky performers puts on a play for a rowdy bunch of soldiers, who sit alongside and among the theater audience. A baby elephant is accused of killing his own mother, and the judge, an officious Banana Tree, is determined to bring a guilty verdict with the aid of his prosecutor, the Moon. The set is positioned so that backstage and onstage can both be seen, as the players show that Anything and everything can be proved!

In THE TRIAL OF LUCULLUS, written in 1940 as a radio play, produced as an opera in 1964, and here partially performed as a shadow show, a noble Roman general appears after death in a court of the underworld. The jury are the shades of ordinary people who were among the victims of war, and they must decide if General Lucullus will be condemned to damnation or welcomed to everlasting glory.

As enactments of absurd tribunals, these make a lively and timely pair of provocations for right now.

THE ELEPHANT CALF is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com