Two celebrated figures in the theatre, actress Lisa Kron and playwright Deb Margolin, will be reunited for the first time in twenty years when Six Figures Theatre Company and Purple Man Theater present Ms. Kron in the world premiere of Ms. Margolin's newest work, Time Is The Mercy Of Eternity -- four short plays about the effects of love, violence, and obsession on the body and soul -- with previews set to begin April 21 prior to its official press opening April 22 at West End Theatre (263 West 86th Street) in Manhattan. Marc Stuart Weitz, who helmed the two-time New York International Fringe Festival Excellence Award-winner Broken Hands, is set to direct.
In Time Is The Mercy Of Eternity, playwright Deb Margolin weaves together a funny and provocative quartet of plays for a quartet of actors: "When They Quiet Down I Start" introduces theatergoers to a harried bus driver plagued by noisy suicide bombers -- and 72 virgins. In the darkly absurd "Clarisse and Larmon" (Humana Festival 2007), a couple meticulously examines the unusual final remains of their son, a war hero killed in Iraq. Inspired by the tragic true story of the late actress Lyric Benson, "The Rich Silk of It" imagines the final moments of a young woman before she is murdered by her ex-fiance. And in the titular "Time Is the Mercy of Eternity," a zany woman refuses to leave the home furnishings section of a department store she claims she owns.
Ms. Margolin's is the only female voice in a New York theatre season that has featured evenings of short plays by one playwright: Samuel Beckett, Ethan Coen, Will Eno, and Paul Rudnick.
According to director Marc Stuart Weitz, Time Is The Mercy Of Eternity is Ms. Margolin's meditations on the difficulty that people have holding onto one another and finding redemption in a world that moves too fast.
Joining Ms. Kron are Curzon Dobell, Khris Lewin, and Claire Siebers. The production has set design by Kerry Lee Chipman, lighting design by Anjeanette Stokes, costumes by Elizabeth B. Carlin, sound design by Geo Wyeth, and video design by Zack Sultan.
Time Is The Mercy Of Eternity marks the first official association between Deb Margolin and Lisa Kron, two artists whose careers began at downtown's legendary WOW cafe as members of the noted feminist performance troupes Split Britches and the Five Lesbian Brothers, respectively. At WOW, Ms. Margolin and Ms. Kron performed together in other artists' works, but never worked together on one of their own projects.
Deb Margolin received a1999-2000 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance. In addition to her work as a founding member of the acclaimed performance troupe Split Britches, Ms. Margolin is also the author of several full-length solo performances pieces which she has toured throughout the United States. Her body of work includes O YES I WILL, INDEX TO IDIOMS, and CRITICAL MASS. She won the 2005 Kesselring Prize for Playwriting for THREE SECONDS IN THE KEY, a play about her own experience with Hodgkin's disease. An anthology of her texts, OF ALL THE NERVE: DEB MARGOLIN: SOLO was published in 1999, and on April 8th she will receive the Helen Merrill Established Playwright Award.
On Broadway, Lisa Kron starred in her play WELL which received two Tony nominations. She also wrote and starred Off-Broadway in her solo play 2.5 MINUTE RIDE which received an Obie Award, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nomination, an LA Drama-Logue Award and the GLAAD Media Award, and was named best autobiographical show of 1999 by New York Press. Her other plays include 101 HUMILIATING STORIES, CHARITY, and MONTECORE. Ms. Kron is also a founding member of the OBIE and Bessie Award-winning theater company the Five Lesbian Brothers, whose plays -- OEDIPUS AT PALM SPRINGS, BRAVE SMILES, BRIDES OF THE MOON, and THE SECRETARIES -- have all been produced by their theatrical home, New York Theater Workshop, and have been performed widely throughout the country.
Director Marc Stuart Weitz is the founding artistic director of Purple Man Theater Company. He recently adapted and directed DAYS AND NIGHT: PAGE 121, LINES 11 & 12 at last year's New York International Fringe Festival. He also directed Moby Pomerance's BROKEN HANDS, which won awards for Outstanding Playwriting and Outstanding Actor at the 10th annual NY International Fringe Festival, and about which Backstage wrote: "Director Marc Weitz coaxes brilliant work from his cast." Other directing credits include Ionesco Festival, Vital Theatre, and Rude Mechanicals Theater Company, of which he is a member, as well as the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. He was assistant director to Mark Lamos on the NY premiere of A.R. Gurney's BIG BILL at Lincoln Center, with Mr. Lamos on the premiere of Arthur Miller's RESURRECTION BLUES at Old Globe, and with David Saint on THE LAST BRIDGE at George Street Playhouse.
Time Is The Mercy Of Eternity is being produced by Loren Ingrid Noveck with Constance Zaytoun. It is a co-production of Six Figures Theatre Company and Purple Man Theater Company.
Six Figures Theatre Company was founded in 1990 by six women who discovered that their experiences and sensibilities were under-represented in the canon of commercial theatre, and committed themselves to developing plays and supporting voices that might not otherwise be heard. Six Figures is dedicated to providing opportunities to women theatre artists, developing quality theatrical work and ensuring that the community as a whole is aware of the opportunity to hear new voices and see exciting, original performances. Over the past 17 seasons, the company's work has included GIRL BLOG FROM IRAQ (The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence, Edinburgh Fringe, 2006), Kendall Cornell's GLAMOURPUSS, CLOWNING THE BARD, CLOWNING THE BIBLE, NOT JUST FOR SHOCK VALUE, Sherry Kramer's THE WALL OF WATER, and Tanya Krohn's THE TERRITORY, as well as its annual Artists of Tomorrow Festival.
Purple Man Theater Company is dedicated to the transformational quality of theater. Whether by finding and developing new works by contemporary playwrights, producing innovative productions of established works, or by devising organic pieces, Purple Man Theater Company melds words with moving bodies in a frenzied array of humanity at its best and worst and is unafraid of constant reinvention, innovation, and exclamation towards that end.
Time Is The Mercy Of Eternity runs April 21, 22, 24, 25 & 26 at 7:30pm; April 27 at 3:00pm; May 1, 4 & 5 at 7:30pm; and May 8, 9 & 10 at 7:30pm at West End Theatre (263 West 86th Street). The running time is 75 minutes. Tickets are $18. For reservations, call Smarttix 212-868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com.
For more information, visit www.sixfigures.com.
