Bonjour,
“Betrayal” must close this weekend, so if you haven’t yet seen it, this is your last chance to see the show both that audiences and critics are raving about. Houses have been packed. We’re sure to sell out this weekend so make your reservations today! Don’t miss it!
TOP TEN! RECOMMENDED!
“an outstanding cast whose work rings true … [r]eflective of Michel and Duncombe’s uncompromising theatrical standards, City Garage’s production is a welcome opportunity to experience a masterly play that, despite its inverted structure, is arguably Pinter at his most accessible.”
— F. Kathleen Foley, Stage Raw
WOW!
“…you’ll see why Pinter is a playwright whose writing is best appreciated performed as is being done now on the City Garage stage. … Director Frédérique Michel elicits sharp performances from three longtime company members. Dunn gives Jerry a Jeremy Irons-like edge and finesse, one that contrasts nicely with Frank’s pony-tailed, considerably more laid-back Robert, and the always captivating Beyer once again proves herself City Garage’s go-to leading lady in a performance that combines British reserve with continental sensuality.”
— Steven Stanley, Stage Scene LA
“… sometimes scorching, sometimes hilarious, always intriguing exploration of human relations…what really grabs our attention and hearts are the performances.”
— Zahir Blue, Night Tinted Glasses
“To succeed in performing specific playwrights, talent is not enough, a mastery of style is not merely required, it is essential….Fortunately, the cast at City Garage is up for the challenge. David E. Frank manages to smolder a muted rage in the face of a false friend and deceiving love. Angela Beyer brings an interesting new hue in her portrait of the unfaithful Emma; the subtler shadowing of desperation that inevitably dooms her desires to disappointment. Every production has its lynch pin and here it is Troy Dunn. His solid and sure noted presentation as Jerry, is a performance one wishes could be preserved in amber. And kudos, too, for Gifford Irvine, for fulfilling the smallest and generally most thankless role in the whole body of Pinter’s works, that of the waiter in the Italian restaurant where Robert and Jerry lunch….Directed by Frédérique Michel with her usual aplomb and with a firm foundation provided by Producer Charles A. Duncombe, City Garage, offers the opportunity to see a masterful staging of Betrayal, one that would win the acknowledgement of even the notorious scornful playwright as perfectly Pinteresque.” — Earnest Kearney, The TVolution
Betrayal by Harold Pinter, February 9th through March 17th
Fridays, Saturdays 8:00pm; Sundays at 4:00
One of Nobel prize-winner Harold Pinter’s most critically acclaimed works, Betrayal tells the story of a long-running affair and the punishing effect of the lies and complex jealousies of the three people involved: Emma, Jerry, and Emma’s husband, Robert. Emma and Jerry, attracted to each other since the night of her wedding to Robert, begin an affair. It goes on for seven years. Emma reveals that she confessed the truth to Robert. Jerry, confused, goes to Robert to explain himself. To his surprise, Robert tells him that he has known about the affair for years, a fascinating game of sexual manipulation between the three of them. Told in reverse chronology, Pinter underlines both the emotional complexity and the painful price of desire, of truth and lies, and what we conceal from each other and from ourselves.
“There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.” — Harold Pinter
The Writers Workshop at City Garage
Are you working on a play, a one-person show, a screenplay, or a piece of fiction and want help pushing it forward? Develop it in the Writers Workshop at City Garage. Get guidance, feedback, story analysis, and support in our weekly sessions. The number of places is limited. Click here for more information.
A letter from the President-Elect of Belarus
We recently received a letter of thanks from Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the courageous woman who is leading the fight for democracy in Belarus and whom most international authorities recognize as the legitimate President of the country. It made us very proud to play a small role in their struggle. You can read it here.
Matching Campaign
Many thanks to all of you who gave so generously to help us toward our year-end fundraising goal. But we’re not there yet—and it’s not too late to give.
We need to reach $30,000 in order to match grants from the state of California and the City of Santa Monica. Thanks to the people below, we’ve raised $26,280. Can you help us make it the rest of the way? Any amount is welcome!
Ruth Flinkman and Ben Marandy
Curt and Michele Wittig
Roger Marheine
Anonymous
Lindsie Carlsen
Geraldine Fuentes
David Burton
Berta Finkelstein and Bill Claiborne
Emyr Gravell
Laurie Steelink
Ravi Narashiman
Nina Kamberos
Steve Diskin
David Tillman
Gustav Vintas
Strawn Bovee
Anna Pond
Myron Meisel
Jay Bevan
Jaime Arze
Stephen Clemmer
Mr. & Mrs. Greenberg
Mr. and Mrs. Larsen
Amanda Stokes
Irene Palma
Jennifer Dion
Lucia Cytynowicz
Joel Altshuler
Ann Bronston
Ernest Tam
Elizabeth Oakes & Samuel Goldstein
Barbara Kellir
Sharon Gardner
Roger Director
Susan Dickinson & David E. Frank
Cristina Markarian & Paul Rubenstein
Lisa & Bill Gray
Holly Dunnigan
Stephen Greenberg
Eva Peel
Mr. Lawrence Goldstein, Mrs. Rosa Goldstein
Lisa & Bill Gray
Esther Lumer
Anonymous
Randi & Jerome Greenberg
Eliane Gans
Mr. and Mrs. James Conn
Grzegorz Majewski
Marlene Larson
Tom Laskey
If you like what we do and want us to continue, please do it! Follow this link and donate now!
It’s not too much to say that we can’t go on without you. And wouldn’t want to.
Merci! ❤️
Frederique 👠👠, Charles, and everyone at City Garage
Archie says Thank you!
Insulted. Belarus
Bonjour,
It’s the last weekend for “Insulted. Belarus,” the inspiring story of ordinary people with the courage to stand up to dictators and autocrats. If you haven’t yet seen it, make your reservations now!
“Wow!…Contemporary theater at its most informative and impactful…A nation’s failed efforts to unseat one of the world’s most reviled dictators comes to stunning, gut-punching life in City Garage Theatre’s English-language World Premiere of Andrei Kureichik’s Insulted….As highly political as it is deeply personal, Insulted. Belarus is contemporary theater at its most informative and impactful. Its English-language premiere does its playwright, City Garage, and the people of Belarus proud.”
— Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA
“Absolutely not to be missed…!!!”
— Edward Goldman, Art Matters
“Top Ten! Recommended!
“A vivid picture of the events leading up to and including the election and the horrific fallout from Lukashenko’s desperate — and merciless — campaign to retain power….Director Frederique Michel keeps the action flowing smoothly, and she unflinchingly serves up violence onstage…. [Juliet] Morrison gives a strong performance in one of the most intriguing roles as a school principal who is completely unapologetic about her manipulating vote counts at her precinct….To borrow from Linda Loman in Death of a Salesman (though the context is much different): “Attention must be paid.” Thankfully, much attention has been paid to Insulted. Belarus.”
— G. Bruce Smith, Stage Raw
“City Garage’s production of “Insulted. Belarus, a chronicle of that country’s political woes by native son Andrei Kureichik, is commendable on a number of levels with each expanding outwards like the transverse waves of a stone when dropped into a pond’s stagnant waters. Most immediate to the gravity wave of said stone is the solidly crafted production itself. Next comes the commitment of City Garage to providing international playwrights the opportunity to have their voices heard beyond their homeland while presenting American audiences with the opportunity to hear them. Finally, the most praiseworthy of the generated longitudinal ripples is City Garage’s dedication to the most essential of dramatic expressions, that of the Political Theatre. Sadly few companies possess the courage to engage that challenge or the craft to do so successfully….Director Frédérique Michel stylishly renders this human tragedy on her stage with great aplomb, and the cast excels in the tasks given them….What Insulted. Belarus offers us, in a dramatically moving fashion, is knowledge of the methods of fascism in undermining a democracy. Sadly, that knowledge is what this nation seems to be in vital need of.”
— Ernest Kearney, The Tvolution
“Powerful stuff. And topical. Performed by one of the best theatre companies in the Los Angeles area. More, this play works in stirring up emotions. The performances are all good. As expected with this company!… a very worthwhile piece of theatre!…. intense and worth the price of a ticket, not least for us to think about nations who are not in the forefront of the news reports right now, but still suffer…. an impactful work of living art, opening one’s eyes and heart to the unknown, yet somehow recognizable as absolutely true!”
— David MacDowell Blue, The World Through Night Colored Glasses
“Superbly balanced humor….eye-opening….a demonstration of human civil progress…. Insulted. Belarus brings forth an amazing truth.”
— Joseph Hazani, A Dilettante
About the Play
A power-hungry authoritarian who will stop at nothing to hang onto power. Accusations of widespread election fraud. Mass protests that turn violent. Sound familiar? Such things used to be unimaginable in the United States. Frighteningly, that’s no longer the case. But can we learn a lesson from what happened in the 2020 election in Belarus? While our would-be dictator fell short, another did not—Alexander Lukashenko. Through brutal repression, mass arrests, torture, and the murders of innocent protestors he kept an iron grip on the country. But for how much longer?
While democracies around the world are under threat from authoritarianism, there are also courageous citizens who are willing to put their lives on the line for the sake of self-determination. This play tells the story of the people of Belarus who did just that. In the election of 2020, they came achingly close to overthrowing the oppressive regime of Alexander Lukashenko, Europe’s longest-ruling dictator. Instead, in Lukashenko’s violent crackdown, thousands were arrested, thrown into prison, beaten, abused, tortured, and silenced. But the pro-Democracy movement, as witnessed by writers such as Andrei Kureichik, who, because of his work in defense of free-speech, was forced into exile, has emerged only more determined. This play, which has been translated into 29 languages and has received more than 250 readings across the globe as part of a worldwide project curated by translator John Freedman, is the story of a determined, fearless people who are willing to fight for a democratically elected government. Are we soon going to be called on to do the same? City Garage is proud to present the English-language world premiere production of this powerful play.
Photo credit: Nadia Buzhan
Help us get to $30,000!
It’s the time of the year we need you to help us continue the work at City Garage through your generous donations. Please, if you can, donate before the end of the year so we can go on with more exciting productions in 2024. Help us get to $30,000 by the end of the year!
Click here to a make a donation.
Thanks to the following donors we’ve raised $11,110 so far. We’re more than a third of the way!
Ruth Flinkman and Ben Marandy
Curt and Michele Wittig
Roger Marheine
Anonymous
Nina Kamberos
Tom Patchett
Lindsie Carlsen
Geraldine Fuentes
David Burton
Berta Finkelstein and Bill Claiborne
Emyr Gravell
Steve Diskin
Laurie Steelink
Amanda Stokes
Archie says Thank you!
See you at City Garage!
Love,
Frederique 👠👠 and Archie
Ghost Land
Bonjour,
It’s the last weekend for “Ghost Land.” If you haven’t yet seen it, don’t miss your chance to be part of this critically-acclaimed world premiere event.
Voice of America, Ukraine
The Ukrainian service for Voice of America did a story on “Ghost Land” recently. Although it’s in Ukrainian, we wanted to share it with you:
Voice of America story, or you can view it on Instagram.
Stage Raw – Recommended! Top 10!
“Ukrainian playwright Andriy Bondarenko brings the horrors inflicted on his compatriots by Russia’s invasion to surrealistic life… Director Fréderique Michel effectively complements Bondarenko’s dreamlike work with live video that provide full-face depictions of the characters, as well as recorded images (video designed by Sannazzaro). Other creative staging choices, such as soldiers carting off wooden crates as if they were their own coffins and Charles Duncombe’s moody lightning — along with sturdy performances from the ensemble —– heighten the stark nature of Bondarenko’s opus.
— Martίn Hernández, Stage Raw
“When the final revelation comes, it hits like thunderclap…. the full context of all we’ve experienced since the lights came up at the start becomes clear. I was shaken. Among other things, the play ceased to be about just what is happening in Ukraine or even about the hell of modern war. It became about me, and you, and everyone who has ever had to endure the trauma of real evil. Of those moments when the worst of us turn this earth into a real Hell. More, how do we heal after that?”
— David MacDowell Blue, The World Through Night-Tinted Glasses
“The reality of Bondarenko’s ghost land is vividly brought to life in Frederique Michel’s staging….haunting images…top notch, effectively setting the mood.”
— Rob Stevens, Haines His Way
Our Fall Fundraising Campaign – Help us get to $30,000!
Please consider making a donation, if you can, toward our fall fundraising campaign. We have new grants to match: from the City for Santa Monica, from the County of Los Angeles, and from the State of California. You, the audience, is what makes the work possible at City Garage and helps us to continue. Thanks to the following donors we’ve raised $4650 so far:
Curt and Michele Wittig
Roger Marheine
Anonymous
Nina Kamberos
Tom Patchett
Lindsie Carlsen
Geraldine Fuentes
Help us get to $30,000 by the end of the year. Follow this link to a make a donation:
Support Us
Support for Ukraine
And throughout this run, we are also urging people to support humanitarian aid to Ukraine, particularly the “Voices of Children” project. For more information, follow his link:
Invertigo Dance
Our friends at Invertigo Dance have an interesting project coming up at the Broad Stage which we wanted to share:
Formulae & Fairy Tales; October 13 + 14 at 7:30pmInvertigo Dance Theatre is bringing back its inventive and inspiring dance theatre performance Formulae & Fairy Tales for two nights only at The Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
Join us for a reimagining of Alan Turing’s queer identity, persecution, and technological discoveries during #LGBTQHistoryMonth This exploration of humankind’s nuanced relationship with technology is a “wonderful, beautiful, and often heart-wrenching work of art” (Dance Chronicle).
Formulae & Fairy Tales
October 13 & 14, 2023 at 7:30pm
The Broad Stage, Santa Monica
https://www.invertigodance.org/on-tour/
Merci, and I look forward to seeing you this weekend at City Garage!
Love,
Frederique 👠👠
#Measure4Measure
Bonjour Bergaragistes,
It’s the last weekend for #Measure4Measure. If you haven’t seen it, this is you last chance! Make your reservations today for what one reviewer called “The best production of this ‘problem play’ I’ve ever seen.” It’s both funny and dark, a truly fascinating play. Don’t miss it. We will wrap up the run with a Q&A with the cast after the final performance, this Sunday, July 9th. Join us!
“Author/adaptor Charles A. Duncombe’s version of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure offers a timely skewering of sexual harassment, religious hypocrisy, and state repression….Stellar performances from the cast under Frédérique Michel’s direction…. Courtney Brechemin, Kat Johnston, and Beyer skillfully juggle multiple roles, while director Michel manipulates that dynamic with some clever clowning in staging and costume changes…. The futility of trusting in the Church or the State to protect women from sexual predators is driven home in the words of both Shakespeare and Duncombe. Sadly, not much has changed since then.”
“Top Ten!” Recommended, Stage Raw
(To read the entire review, go to: https://stageraw.com/2023/06/07/measure4measure/)
“The best production of this “problem play” I have ever seen….[Courtney Brechemin] nearly steals the show…. At the very end–and here I cannot praise Charles A. Duncombe’s editing nor Frederique Michel’s direction enough–what seems like the perfect ending in terms of theatrical formula lies naked in its exploitation and deceit and casual sadism. So…wow!”
The World Through Night Tinted Glasses
(To read the entire review, go to: https://zahirblue.blogspot.com/2023/06/measure4measure-review.html)
If you haven’t yet made you reservations, now is the time. Join us!
city-garage.ticketleap.com/measure4measure/
#Measure4Measure
A new version of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure
for City Garage by Charles A. Duncombe
June 2 – July 9, 2023
Vienna is corrupt, brimming with sex and vice. The Duke, lax in enforcing the strict laws, leaves the city in the hands of a puritanical reformer eager to impose moral order. This substitute begins ordering executions but when a beautiful young novice, pleading for the life of her brother, provokes his own lust, he resorts to sexual blackmail. When she threatens to expose him, he mocks her. Who would believe her rather than him? In this version of Shakespeare’s play for City Garage, gender politics, power, and sexuality are examined through a contemporary lens. A cast of seven, playing multiple characters, takes a text from 1604 and creates an intense, darkly comic, biting commentary on our own times. Then, as now, power and sex are inextricably entwined and the question of how to obtain justice remains just as difficult to answer.
Merci, and see you at the theatre!
Love,
FM👠👠
Support for Ukraine
In March of 2023 City Garage presented the second in a series of readings as part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project. Watch it here.
The Penelopiad
Bonjour Citygaragistes,
It’s the last weekend for “The Penelopiad.” Don’t miss it! We were sold out last weekend so if you haven’t made your reservations, do it now. Critics have been saying some wonderful things:
Top Ten! Recommended!
“To see a cast of 13 women onstage is a delight, and to see 11 of them metamorphose into a raft of ducks, a ship, a group of weavers, a pair of sacrificial animals, and more — feels like a modern yet anciently rooted chorus at its best and is a credit to Frédérique Michel’s choreography and direction.”
—Amanda L. Andrei, Stage Raw
“Yet another amazing and arousing production at City Garage Theatre retelling the story of the Trojan War. With choreography, singing and nudity… plenty of it!”
—Edward Goldman, Art Matters
“What really makes up the beating heart of this production are the twin beats of ritual and theme. In a true echo of Greece’s ancient theatre, much here is made of dance and masks….The way the cast members became ships, became waves, became ghosts, became slaughtered animals, etc. was part of how director Frederique Michel brought a frankly difficult play to life….A wonderful dive into the imagination.”
—David McDowell Blue, The World Through Night Tinted Glasses
“Approaches the “hallelujah” level!”
—Don Shirley, Angeles Stage
“Masterful… The Penelopiad stands out as one of City Garage’s most memorable productions.”
-Will Manus, Total Theater.com
“A wonderful all-female ensemble….directorially brilliant.”
-Joseph Hazani, A Dilettante
“The Penelopiad receives a bracing, audacious performance as Santa Monica’s City Garage returns to full swagger….The adaptation is a corker….fragrant, dark, and bitter with an eye-opening kick. “
– Ravi Narasimhan, Backscatter
“In The Penelopiad at CityGarage it is the women who finally illuminate the actual tragedy of Homer’s epic. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!”
-Tracey Paleo, Gia on the Move
MARGARET ATWOOD’S, THE PENELOPIAD at City Garage
Get Your Tickets now for the final weekend!
Please note that while masks and proof of COVID-19 vaccination are no longer required at City Garage, both are strongly recommended for the safety of our performers, staff, and other audience members.
Help us make our Match!
Thanks to all who have contributed so far toward our goal of $27,000 to match the new grant we received from the Caflifornia Arts Council. Merci to our new donors of this last week, Elizabeth Oakes, Samuel Goldstein, and Roger Director, So far, thanks to all of you, we’ve raised $11,750.
Ruth Flinkman and Ben Marandy
Kat Adibi (in memory of Bill Moynihan)
Anonymous
Jeff Atik
Holly and Harold Dunnigan
Peggy Flood
Emyr Gravell
David Tillman
Ann Wang
Michelle and Curt Wittig
Talma Zelitzki
Lisa and Bill Gray
Nina Kamberos
Pamela St. Clair Johnson
Ann Bronston
Berta Finkelstein and Bill Claiborn
Tom Laskey
Ernest Tam
Myron Meisel
Steve Diskin
Lindsie Carlson
Philip Brandes
Ravi Narasimhan
Sharon and Chester Graine
Rafaele Commitante
Geraldine Fuentes
Elizabeth Oakes and Samuel Goldstein
Roger Director
Can you please, please help us get the rest of the way before the end of the month? Make your gift by following this link:
California Arts Council Grant campaign.
And don’t forget to support us on Patreon and get access to our whole library of City Garage Classics.
Here’s the link to our Patreon Page.
Merci, and see you soon at City Garage!
Love,
Frederique 👠👠
“Voices From Ukraine” – The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project
To support humanitarian aid for Ukraine, please visit our page, “Voices From Ukraine.”
The Birthday Party
Bonjour Citygaragistes,
Only two performances left of “The Birthday Party.” If you haven’t seen it yet, this is your last chance!
“My friends, I urge you to see this challenging and inspiring performance of The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter. Superb acting and stage directing in an intimate space with only a few dozen seats. You can still buy tickets for this performance for the month of July. I hope you take the time to enjoy it.”
–Edward Goldman, Art Matters
“This production knocked it out of the park.”
–Night Tinted Glasses
“The Birthday Party is open for a lot of interpretations for its real meanings. Even if one doesn’t win in this guessing game, the stage presentation at City Garage makes great theater as viewed on its intimate stage.”
–Accessibility Live Onstage
Top Ten, Recommended!
The Birthday Party was not intended to be a realistic depiction of everyday life among working class Brits; instead, it was meant to relay awareness of the dark oppressive forces that lie beneath the surface of daily living….Much of the humor and pure entertainment in this production is reflected around Flood’s utterly engaging persona, a beacon amidst the baleful shadows and apocalyptic themes…an adept, well-paced production…a tale of authoritarianism run amuck.”
–Deborah Klugman, Stage Raw
“City Garage has revisited The Birthday Party in a splendid production that captures Pinter’s specialty as a playwright: grotesque naturalism wrapped around a core of menace and depravity…. superb acting and directing.”
–Will Manus, Total Theater
Make your reservations now!
Buy Tickets Now
Please note our current COVID protocols.
And merci to our many donors who have added more candles to our cake.
Please join them with your donation of $100 to add another candle. Can we get one for each of our last 35 years? Only twelve more to go. Here’s a link you can follow to add yours to the cake:
Coming August 5th “Beach People” by Charles A. Duncombe.
Tickets now on sale!
Close your eyes and listen to the sound of the waves, feel the sun on your skin, have a pina colada, smell the coconut oil. A couple baking happily on the sand seem to have found paradise until their life is turned upside down by a beautiful girl in bikini who has a thing for fruit salad and eastern philosophy. And what about the handsome waiter in a speedo? This is how a day at the beach turns into existential panic. Two floundering people struggle to figure it all out—literally—in this new comedy about love, sex, and the meaning of life by award-winning playwright Charles A. Duncombe.
https://city-garage.ticketleap.com/beach-people/
Animal Farm
This week on “Animal Farm” Steven talks with Roger Q. Mason, playwright of Lavendar Men, opening next week at Skylight Theatre/Playwrights’ Arena.
A Tribute
It is with great sadness that we share with you that this last week we lost one of our dear friends and long-time company members, the very talented, bright young woman and mother of twins, Liz Hight. Here is one of her great performances, in Eugene Ionesco’s The Lesson. She will be missed by her family and friends.
Watch The Lesson
Merci, and see you soon at City Garage
Love,
Frederique 👠👠
“Voices From Ukraine” – The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project
To support humanitarian aid for Ukraine, please visit our page, “Voices From Ukraine.”
Voices from Ukraine
As part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project, a global effort to raise humanitarian aide for the people of Ukraine, more than a hundred theatre companies around the world have presented over 170 readings of 22 plays by Ukrainian playwrights, all of them written since the war began. Here is the reading City Garage presented on May 15th. If you want to support this cause, here are links to some charities on the ground in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Emergency Performing Arts Fund (https://www.uepaf.org.ua/)
Children’s stories (https://voices.org.ua/en/childrens-stories/)
Humanitarian aid for Ukraine (https://www.lphr.org/en/humanitaere-hilfe-ukraine/)
Here’s the video of the reading:
Thanks again to the donors who supported the reading:
Chopper Bernet, Nathan Birnbaum, Holly and Harold Dunnigan, Anne Guillen, Lisa and Bill Gray, Jana Hatch, Garv Manocha, Roger Marheine, Graciela Markarian, Myron Meisel, Bottara Kahn Nabaie, Veronique Pascal, Sirpa Raitanen, Laurel Schmidt, Pamela St. Clair-Johnson, Michael Toman, Gustav Vintas.
“Endgame” by Samuel Beckett
Bonjour Citygaragistes,
It’s the last weekend for Samuel Beckett’s “Endgame!” Don’t miss a chance to see this wonderful and haunting show. Make your reservations today!
“Top Ten” – Recommended! Stage Raw
“Nothing is funnier than unhappiness.” This line from Samuel Beckett’s grim yet witty one-act, a classic of the existentialist “Theatre of the Absurd” canon, may best sum up the playwright’s bleak philosophy. Laughter at those less happy than us – at least for now – may be our only solace in the face of the inevitable. What with the pandemic and Putin, what better way to spend an evening?….Director Frédérique Michel has a knack for comic timing, exemplified with Clov’s business with sundry props and the characters’ flippant comments, some of which Beckett uses to teasingly suggest that his characters are in on the bizarre gag. And the ensemble is well matched for its depiction of a dysfunctional family – and world – on its last – whether missing, useless, or damaged – legs.”
“How We Buried Stalin” – Russian dissident playwright Artur Solomonov on “Animal Farm”
Also, this week on a special episode of “Animal Farm,” Steven talks with Russian playwright Artur Solomonov who’s controversial play “How We Buried Josef Stalin” was dropped by the Moscow theater that commissioned it under the pressure of Putin’s regime. Steven has an extended conversation with the playwright about the nightmares taking place in both Ukraine and Russia and how Solomonov’s play explores the recent revival of Stalin worship in Russia and what that might portend. Please watch.
Animal Farm
Refugee Support for Ukraine
In 2000 we did a production about human rights abuses in Chechnya called “Atrocities.” Tragically, the same thing is now playing out all over again before the world’s horrified eyes. We thought we would offer the production online for the next few weeks, as well as the text. Please show your support of the millions of displaced citizens of Ukraine by giving directly to UNICEF, Amnesty International, or the charity of your choice. Here are links:
UNICEF USA Official Site – Help Children in Ukraine
Watch the City Garage Classic production “Atrocities”
Purchases of the text made through our website will be forwarded to the charity of your choice. Just give us instructions at citygarage@citygarage.org.
Atrocities: Hallucinations of Chechnya by Charles A. Duncombe
Purchase the book from Amazon
Merci, and we look forward to seeing you at City Garage.
Love,
Frederique
“Hughie” by Eugene O’Neill
Bonjour Citygaragistes,
It’s opening weekend at last at City Garage! Eugene O’Neill’s late masterpiece, “Hughie” It’s been long time coming and we’re so grateful that so many of you have shown us so much support during this extended shutdown. But we finally resume live, in-person performance this weekend and we hope to have many of you with us for these three special, limited-seating performances: Friday and Saturday at 8:00pm, and Sunday at 4:00pm–October 8th, 9th and 10th. Proof of vaccination and masks will be required. There are still some seats available, so if you’d like to attend in person please write to us at citygarage@citygarage.org. Let us know which night you’d like to come, and how many seats. We will send you a confirmation along with a link to Paypal for payment in advance. Tickets are $30.
If you’d like a little taste of the show, here is a trailer on YouTube.
And this weekend we start our new partnership with the nationwide streaming service, Broadway on Demand. “Hughie” opens nationally on the same night as it does here in Santa Monica, Friday, October 8th and it will run through November 14th. Once it opens you can stream it any time you like during those dates. Tickets are $15 and they’re available now. Here is the link:
And of course there is a new episode of our weekly talk show about theater and politics with Steven Leigh Morris, “Animal Farm.” This week Steven talks to Marc Antonio Pritchett, Co-Artistic Director of Sacred Fools, one of LA’s most dynamic theater companies.
Be a Patreon! Your support means so much and can start as low as just $2 a month! Help keep us going!
Here’s the link to our Patreon Page.
Stay safe, get vaccinated, and we look forward to seeing you for “Hughie”—either through streaming or at City Garage!
Love,
Frederique
“Largo Desolato” by Vaclav Havel
Largo Desolato
by Vaclav Havel
January 24 – March 1, 2020
“The Consulate General of the Czech Republic highly recommends the Václav Havel’s semi-autobiographical play Largo Desolato… at the City Garage Theatre.” —
Invitation posted on Consulate Cultural News & Events page
“An eerie, atmospheric staging at City Garage in Santa Monica revisits Havel’s absurdist 1986 portrait of Iron Curtain paranoia…The material is well suited to the stylish City Garage aesthetic, as director Frédérique Michel and designer Charles A. Duncombe lean into Havel’s extensive use of repetition to evoke a visceral sense of Leopold’s paralysis…. in an authoritarian state, the only thing worse than being a perceived threat is to become irrelevant.” — By Philip Brandes, LA Times
“As ever, City Garage surprises and haunts. Every cast member of Largo Desolato is a veteran of the company now, and deliver performances with power as well as precision. The direction continues to use the (seemingly) simple presence of being in the same room with another human being to vast effect. The result feels raw, and terribly honest.” — Zahir Blue, Night Tinted Glasses
City Garage stages a timely revival of Havel’s classic piece about totalitarian regimes, censorship, and the price of integrity. In this semi-autobiographical play, translated by Czech-born playwright Tom Stoppard, a dissident intellectual, Leopold Nettles, is dogged by the secret police, pressured by his friends, and nagged by his housemate to just shut up and go along. Shadowy figures arrive to offer him a deal to stay out of prison but Nettles can’t get himself to accept. His world starts to dissolve in a hallucinatory battle of conscience but will he ultimately have the courage of his convictions?
Havel wrote the play when he had just emerged from prison in 1984. He went on to play a major role in the Velvet Revolution that toppled communism in Eastern Europe, as well as serving as the first President of the Czech Republic. What would he make of the frightening resurgence of so many of the ideas he sacrificed so much to eradicate?
Fourth Sunday Q&A
After the Sunday, February 16 matinee, please join us for an informal discussion with the director, producer, and cast of Largo Desolato.
This project is supported by the California Arts Council; LA County Supervisors through the LA County Arts Commission; the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission
