EAST 10TH STREET: SELF PORTRAIT WITH EMPTY HOUSE, a new play by and about downtown icon Edgar Oliver, holds encore performances 2/12-2/28. This look at a life on the fringes of New York's Lower East Side comes on the heels of what could be Oliver's breakthrough role in the upcoming film from Napoleon Dynamite's Jared Hess, Gentlemen Broncos, opposite Sam Rockwell as well as a national ad campaign for mobile phones in Ireland that has become a cult phenomenon. This limited run Off-Broadway engagement is directed by Randy Sharp at Axis Theater where it premiered to critical acclaim in November 2008.
In EAST 10TH STREET: SELF PORTRAIT WITH EMPTY HOUSE, downtown theatre icon Edgar Oliver takes the audience on a macabre voyage through the strange rooms of the apartment house where he has lived since his first years in New York. Inhabiting the dark, mysterious halls of this East Village tenement building are a dwarf Cabalist, a possible Nazi, the landlord's former wet nurse who apparently lives in a nest of rags, and many others. This incredible cast of real life characters illuminates a sad, funny and uniquely New York story.
Georgia native Edgar Oliver started performing in New York at the legendary Pyramid Club in the mid-1980's. As a playwright, many of Oliver's plays have been staged at La MaMa and other downtown venues, including The Seven Year Vacation, The Poetry Killer, Hands in Wartime, Motel Blue 19, and Mosquito Succulence. As a stage actor, he has performed in countless plays including Edward II with Cliplight Theater, Marc Palmieri's Carl the Second, Lipsynka's Dial M for Model, and numerous productions at Axis. Edgar is also one of the most beloved story tellers at The Moth. His film roles include That's Beautiful Frank, Henry May Long (directed by Axis' Randy Sharp) and Gentlemen Broncos. His published works include A Portrait of New York by a Wanderer There, Summer, and The Man Who Loved Plants.
Through the careful utilization of various media, Axis Company has produced an eclectic series of original and published plays with highly advanced, state of the art technological components that enhance the internal meaning of the material. Past productions include Buchner's Woyzeck, Beckett's Play, Benjamin Baker's 1848 sensation A Glance at New York and the U.S. premiere of Sarah Kane's Crave, starring Deborah Harry, in addition to numerous original works.
