Monday, September 12, 2011

The University of North Carolina Wilmington Department of Theatre will open its 2011-12 production season with a "brilliant boxing match" between two genius playwrights, Eugene Ionesco and Harold Pinter. In one show and one setting, the department will offer audiences Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, directed by Anne Berkeley, and Pinter's The Room, directed by Charles Grimes.

The production will run Sept. 22-25 and Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in the SRO Theatre of UNCW's Cultural Arts Building, which offers limited seating. Shows run at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with a 2 p.m. matinee performance Sunday.

Ionesco was one of several pioneers in what became known as "The Theatre of the Absurd," a style that expressed the collapse of rational meaning and moral belief following World War II. Ionesco discovered a new theatrical language to express the illogic and absurdity of the social world 20th-century humanity had created for itself.

"Aristotle told us 2500 years ago that the purpose of theatre is for audiences to experience 'catharsis,' or wisdom and enlightenment," said Anne Berkeley, associate professor of theatre, who directs The Bald Soprano. "Ionesco, along with thousands of playwrights since then, seeks to enlighten by reaching into our collective sense of the ridiculous."

Pinter adapted this theatrical fashion into a more realistic style, depicting through theatrical images how a world deprived of sense, purpose and rationality exacts a severe toll on the human psyche. In The Room, the occupants of a derelict boarding house are visited by an increasingly menacing set of visitors, concluding in a frightful loss of place, security and self.

Ionesco and Pinter's vision of 20th-century anxieties endures into the 21st, according to theatre instructor Charles Grimes, who directs The Room. "Drama is about the hidden underpinnings of life," he said. "The Room reveals the gap between what we try to make out of our lives, and what life and fate can always do to us."

Andrew Belser, chair of the theatre department, said students and faculty are excited by the huge sweep of theatrical styles represented in the 2011-12 UNCW production season. "This first show alone pairs the chaotic word fest of The Bald Soprano with the mysterious danger of The Room in one evening that promises to be funny, tender and chilling," he said.

Individual show tickets for all 2011-12 performances are $12 general public, $10 UNCW employee/alumni or senior citizens, and $5 students. Patrons may also purchase a Season Punch Card, which provides four tickets in any combination for one or multiple performances, with the added benefit of advance ticket purchase for all shows. A punch card holder may use four tickets for one performance, two tickets each for two performances, or as a single ticket for four performances. Punch card prices are $40 general public and $30 UNCW employee/alumni.

Tickets are available in advance at the Kenan Auditorium Box Office (The Bald Soprano and The Room tickets are available now) at 910.962.3500. The Cultural Arts Building Box Office is open one hour prior to performances for day-of-show ticket purchase and will-call pickup.

For group rates or special accommodations, call 910.962.2061 or e-mail theatre@uncw.edu.

Other 2011-12 Department of Theater Productions include:

The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
Directed by Renee Vincent
November 10-13, 17-20
Mainstage Theatre

The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
Directed by Ed Wagenseller
February 23-26, March 1-4
Mainstage Theatre

Margo Veil by Len Jenkin
Directed by Paul Castagno
April 19-22, 26-29
Mainstage Theatre

More information is available online at www.uncw.edu/thr

Media contact: Dana Fischetti, media relations manager, 910.962.7259 or fischettid@uncw.edu

Media are welcome to attend production rehearsals and take video or still photos, or do a live preview. Rehearsal schedule available by request.


Photo captions:

The Room #1: Rose (Laura Higginson) accepts mercy from her blind visitor (Quinten Johnson) in Harold Pinter's The Room.

The Room #2: Rose (Laura Higginson) serves breakfast to her menacing husband Bert (James Northrop) in The Room.

The Bald Soprano #1: Left to right, Owen Hickle-Edwards as Mr. Smith and Tori Keaton and Nick Williams as Mr. and Mrs. Martin in Eugene Ionesco's The Bald Soprano.

The Bald Soprano #2: A confrontation between Nick Williams, left, as Mr. Martin and Owen Hickle-Edwards as Mr. Smith in The Bald Soprano.