City Garage Theatre

Bonjour Citygaragistes,

This weekend, for our City Garage Classic, we have another show from deep in the archives, “The Presidents” by Werner Schwab, which we did in 2000. There’s only one angle and its vintage, but quite enjoyable. And on our web series “Animal Farm: Conversations on Theater and Politics with Steven Leigh Morris and Guests,” Steven talks with Martha Demson, Artistic Director of Open Fist, about the legislative push to amend AB5 to help non-profits. Here is a link to talk show:

https://citygarage.org/animalfarm/

And here is a little about “The Presidents”

Cast: Maureen Byrnes, Katharina Lejona, Cynthia Mance, Eileen O’Connell, Veronica Valentine, Erin Vincent

From Backstage West by Michael Green

“In the grimly hilarious vision of Austrian playwright Werner Schwab, mankind starts rotten and has no chance of redemption because life offers nothing but barren mass delusions and pathetic ego-centric fantasies, condemning humanity to wallow in a world filled by sex, violence, and shit, vulnerable to the false promises of Nazism whistling invitingly from the wings. This first (1990) major play hadn’t yet perfected Schwab’s trademark mangling of language that reduces communication to incoherence or lacerating assault, but already vivid is his degraded, hideously cruel and stupid humanity, whose exchanges produce only pain and rage.

In the grimly hilarious vision of Austrian playwright Werner Schwab, mankind starts rotten and has no chance of redemption because life offers nothing but barren mass delusions and pathetic ego-centric fantasies, condemning humanity to wallow in a world filled by sex, violence, and shit, vulnerable to the false promises of Nazism whistling invitingly from the wings. This first (1990) major play hadn’t yet perfected Schwab’s trademark mangling of language that reduces communication to incoherence or lacerating assault, but already vivid is his degraded, hideously cruel and stupid humanity, whose exchanges produce only pain and rage.”
Adult language.

It will be showing on our City Garage YouTube channel from 8:00pm this Friday, May 7, through noon on Friday, May 14th.
https://www.youtube.com/c/citygaragetheatre
It’s free to view but we ask people to make a donation if they can through our Chuffed page or at “Support Us” on our website:

Chuffed
https://chuffed.org/project/citygarage
City Garage website
https://citygarage.org/support-us/

Merci to all of you who have sent donations and supported us during this difficult last year. We love you. Stay safe, get your vaccines, and we hope to see you again soon.

Love,

Frederique

“The Best Live Theater to Stream Online”

“eerie, atmospheric ... well suited to the stylish City Garage aesthetic”

“... a Greek myth scaled down to human proportions ... It’s simple, it’s quiet, it’s deeply personal”

“THE BOURGEOIS GENTLEMAN had the audience laughing from start to finish.”

“Superb acting….Frederique Michel’s clockwork-like direction of Schimmelpfennig’s tricky, provocative play and Charles Duncombe’s atmospheric stage design also deserve the highest praise possible.”

“City Garage, known for daring, highly stylized sociopolitical theater, is the ideal local company to revive this infrequently done, disturbingly timely play.”

“Crowd-pleasing and consistently funny!”

“The piece is fascinating to watch... handsome and visually stunning production, stylized and ritualized.”

“The writing and the performances crackle...”

“A marvelous evening of theater... a distinctive, individual form of dance-theater, using a movement vocabulary that... communicates immediately with gestures sometimes like seductive cabaret performance... ”