Category: Uncategorized

Hughie

Bonjour,

Eugene O’Neill’s “Hughie” is now Playing!

“Hughie,” Eugene O’Neill’s small masterpiece, continues its successful run. If you haven’t yet seen it, don’t miss this haunting, late masterpiece by one of America’s greatest playwrights. Watch the trailer!

“A welcoming simplicity….[Troy Dunn] is a walking parcel of unrealized dreams and bluster….What emerges is a stark, sad picture of Erie’s shallow, desperate existence. Director Frederique Michel has added a layer to the narrative with the inclusion of the voice of a narrator (Nathan Dana Aldrich), who provides occasional insight, commentary and humor….solidly convincing.”
— Stage Raw

“[An] inspiring production with excellent actors. [A] short play, with a big story to tell.”
— Edward Goldman, Art Matters

“Erie Smith is a liar and a con man, a boaster who dances between truth and delusion. The direction of Frédérique Michel of these fine actors brings all that to the surface, bubbling out like the stuff of an existential cauldron. It feels tragic to watch, and hopeful, disorienting as well as sad. In the end Dunn’s Erie comes across as in some fundamental way…us. You. Them. Me. All of us.”
— David MacDowell Blue, The World Through Night Tinted Glasses

Get your tickets now!

About the Play

Hughie, one of Eugene O’Neill’s last works, takes place in a seedy New York hotel lobby at 3:00am on a hot night in the summer of 1928. Erie Smith, a small-time gambler, down on his luck and at the end of his rope, shows up after a three-day bender, brought on by the death of “Hughie,” a night clerk at the hotel and always a willing listener to Erie’s yarns of his life’s imaginary successes. But Hughie is gone now, and Erie has only his dull, disinterested replacement to listen to him as he tries to boast and lie his way through his grief, loneliness, and despair. Only now, with Hughie dead, a guy he always considered a dope and a sucker, does he realize the desolate emptiness of his life. in this powerful, haunting piece, as in The Iceman Cometh, O’Neill draws a heartbreaking portrait of longing and loss, of the loneliness of the human condition, and the desperate hunger to overcome it.

New Grants for City Garage!

Great news! We’ve just received notice of new government grants for City Garage—for a total of $25,900! But they are also matching grants. That’s where we look to you, our kind and loyal audience. Like all non-profit theaters, large and small, we could never meet our expenses through box office alone. We depend on grants like these and on generous contributions from patrons like you to match them. Help us raise this $25,900 by your donation. And thanks to the generous patrons below, we’ve already raised $8,138!

Michelle & Curt Wittig
William R. Gray Jr
Andrea Baker
Jennifer Ferro
Jay Bevan
Michael Intriere
Alexandria Gray
Shelly Martinez
Lisa & Bill Gray
Roger Marheine
Holly Dunnigan
Martha Duncan
Lindsie Carlsen
Tom Laskey
Alexandra Seros

Please join them in supporting the work at City Garage. Any amount helps, large or small. Follow this link and donate today!

Merci, and see you at City Garage!

Frederique & Archie

Voices From Ukraine 3

Bonjour,

With so many terrible problems in the world, we know it’s easy to forget the ongoing struggle in Ukraine and the incredible courage the Ukrainian people have shown in their heroic resistance to Putin’s brutal invasion. Won’t you show your support by coming to City Garage this Thursday? We’ll be doing a staged reading of a new full-length play from Ukrainian poet and author Valeriy Puzik, “Ghosts in Branches.” Valeriy has been fighting on the front lines since the beginning of the conflict in 2014. He provides a true, first-person perspective on Ukraine’s existential struggle for survival—but one laced with poetry, deep spirituality, and an aching longing for peace. It’s our third installment in our ”Voices From Ukraine” series as part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Reading Project, a benefit to raise humanitarian relief for Ukraine. One hundred percent of the proceeds go to groups working on the ground in Ukraine. Please come. Any amount of donation is welcome and can be made either in advance sort at the door.

Merci,

Frederique & Charles

Voices from Ukraine 3

The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project at City Garage

“Ghosts in Branches” by Valeriy Puzik

Translated by John Freedman with Natalia Bratus

A staged reading to support humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

Thursday, June 6, 2024 @ 8:00pm


As Russia’s brutal war enters its third year since the full-scale invasion, City Garage will be presenting a staged reading of a new, full-length play from Ukrainian author and poet Valeriy Puzik “Ghosts in Branches.” This is the third in a series of readings City Garage has presented as part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project in support of humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine.

Featuring: Nathan Dana Aldrich, Angela Beyer, Carter Calahan, Carey Cannata, Devin Davis-Lorton, Romy Evans, David E. Frank, Liam Galaz Howard, Gifford Irvine, Ryan Nebreja, Ralph Radebaugh, Shane Weikel.

Directed by: Charles A. Duncombe

Click here to attend and/or donate

About the Play:

A small group of Ukrainian soldiers shelters in the remains of a hut on the front lines of the war. Some are young, some are older; they are ordinary men, who have left behind ordinary lives to do something none of them ever imagined: fight a war. In their daily struggle to survive they joke, gripe, fantasize about distant love ones, fend off boredom, hunger, loneliness, deadly shelling and drone attacks, go on night raids, and endure the constant thought of death: not if it will come, but simply when. In this haunting, beautiful piece, Ukrainian poet, writer, and filmmaker Valeriy Puzik takes a gently ironic view of deadly events: grimly comic, deeply humane, injecting lovely surreal fantasies that express a longing for peace, seeking shards of light and sources of hope in the grimmest of situations.

About the Author:

Valeriy Puzik is a Ukrainian artist, writer, and director. He was born in 1987 in Telizhyntsi in the Khmelnytskyi region. His paintings and artwork have been shown in exhibitions and museums in Ukraine as well as internationally. Puzik has actively fought in the war with Russia on the front lines from 2014 to the present. He is the author of numerous books. Bezdomni psi (2018; tr: Homeless Dogs) and Monolit (2018) are collections of short prose for which Puzik has won several awards. With his comrades, he made a short documentary called Ceasefire, whose plot unfolds in the early days of the conflict, when a ceasefire was announced in eastern Ukraine on February 15, 2015. The film received a special jury prize at the 86 festival of the Palma Piwnoci (tr: Palm of the North) national documentary competition.Puzik’s book Ja baciv jogo zhywym, mertvym i znowu zhywym (2020; tr: I Saw Him Alive, Dead and Alive Again) was one of the top 20 Ukrainian prose books of 2020, according to the Ukrainian PEN Club. He is the screenwriter of the miniseries Blindash (tr: Blindage), based on real experiences of Ukrainian soldiers of the anti-terrorist operation in Donbas. Puzik has worked as a journalist for various online media and newspapers. He has won numerous literary competitions, such as Smoloskip, Granoslov, and Novela po-ukrainski, and was awarded, among others, the Olesia Ulyanenko Literary Prize. Puzik wrote his first play, Ghost in Branches, in 2024.

About the Project:
The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project, organized and supervised by writer/translator John Freedman, has been raising humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began. To date, there have been more than 580 performances of 170 texts by 60 writers in 35 countries and 20 languages. Attendees are asked to make a minimum donation of $10 but encouraged to give more. 100% of proceeds will be distributed to charities working on the ground in Ukraine.

We Need You for Our $15,000 Pledge Campaign!

Won’t you help us match the generous pledge one of our anonymous donors recently made? Thanks to the people below, we now have $1,300 toward the $15,000 we need to raise by the end of the summer. Join them and help us get there by your gift, large or small.

Help us get to the $15,000 we need to raise!

Our grateful thanks to these donors:
Gustav Vintas
Martha Duncan
Lindsie Carlsen
Tom Patchett

Donate Today!

The Writers Workshop at City Garage — New Online Sessions Begin July 6th!

The Writers Workshop is now happening online! Sign up now and get 50% off! 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. Reserve your spot by July 4th and get 50% off your first month! Click here for more information.

Frederique 👠👠, Charles, and everyone at City Garage

Archie says Thank you!

News

Bonjour Bergaragistes,

Last Monday, Stage Raw held their annual Awards Ceremony. “The Penelopiad” was awarded “Distinguished Production of the Year.” Congratulations to the cast and everyone who worked on the production. Charles and I also received their “Lifetime Achievement Award.” Steven Leigh Morris, Publisher/ Editor of Stage Raw, and Faye Viviana, Executive Producer of Crimson Square Theatre, presented the award and this is what they said:

Sometime in 1989, maybe it was 1990, but it was a long time ago, I was a lot younger then, and so were the co-founders of City Garage Theatre, who we’re honoring tonight. I don’t remember why exactly, but I was on the Santa Monica Pier, and I noticed this theater putting on a play by Harold Pinter. Let that sink in. Harold Pinter, on the Santa Monica Pier. Outside, it was the sound of calliopes and screaming kids and the smells of popcorn and sunscreen. And inside, on this stage there was a kind of stark terror, absurdist repartee, Pinteresque pauses, I remember slivers of sunlight oozing in through tiny cracks in the building where you could still hear those calliopes and I couldn’t help wonder what the hell is going on here? This was not the first production by City Garage and its co-founders, Frederique Michel and Charles Duncombe, who we’re honoring tonight . The organization started putting on plays 1987 at the off-Main Theater, also in Santa Monica. We’re now in 2023 and the company has never left Santa Monica, though they’ve been in several theaters there.

One of them was tucked in an alley of the Third Street Promenade – the embodiment of consumerism. And of course, many of the plays they put on railed against consumerism. Why not? It’s sort of like putting on a play at the beach that rails against the surf. That’s part of what they do. Defiance. Much of what they defy, and have always defied, is the odds. The odds of sustaining a defiant theater of ideas in a complacent culture.

They’ve done plays from all over the world, plays by Fassbinder, Mueller, Margaret Atwood, Charles Mee, Caryl Churchill, Sarah Kane, and Eugene O’Neill, and plays written by their own Managing Director, Charles Duncombe. Their Artistic Director Frederique Michel is French, which means they’ve also done Moliere, and Ionesco. Moliere and Charles Mee probably sit most comfortably with traditional audiences, But Frederique, who directs all their shows, usually directs her actors to move with a kind of arch, presentational choreography that’s very hard to execute well. But they’ve been at it so long, that they’ve discovered a way to communicate with their actors so that the style looks, well, natural.

They’ve made the unnatural look natural. They’ve made defiance entertaining, for 36 years they’ve provoked and stimulated and offended and done everything that the theater does best, but rarely dares to. And 36 years later, they’re still here, adapting, surviving, and, in moments, thriving. It’s with great pleasure that Stage Raw presents its 2023 Lifeime Achievement Award to Frederique Michel and Charles Duncombe.

So many thanks to you, our loyal audience, for being with us through this journey of 35 years. But there is more to come. Next week we’ll tell you about our next production coming up, our own City Garage version of Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure.”

Love,

Frederique 👠👠

Cardenio

Bonjour Citygaragistes,

It’s the last weekend for “Cardenio.” If you haven’t yet seen it, come join the fun onstage for “Cardenio.” Just four performances left. Make your reservations today!

Top Ten – Recommended!

“In Michel’s propulsive and imaginative staging, the actors, including Jason Pereira, Angela Beyer, Kat Johnston, Loosema Hakverdian, and Andy Kallok, pitch their performances just shy of slapstick. Scene-stealer Dunn, in particular, chews the scenery with brio, but the entire cast is engaging and well-matched. It all makes for a delightful entertainment, to be sure. But dig a bit deeper and you might discover a heartfelt Valentine to the transformative power of the theater, a fitting message not only for this play, but for City Garage’s enduring mandate.”
— Stage Raw

“What’s magical about this moment isn’t simply the transformation of an actor [Tory Dunn] before our eyes (though that’s pretty great). It’s the self-awareness of the play and the production itself. It’s a bit like the play is winking at us and saying — ‘Yes, it’s all been a bit over the top up until now. We know. But it’s part of the magic of theater. And isn’t that really why we’re all here?’….More than a love letter simply to these prior plays, it’s a love letter to theater itself.”
— KCRW

“High paced wit and slapstick comedy….Enjoy this piece and have a great laugh or two in the process!
— Accessibly Live Off-Line

“Mischief and misunderstandings commence, splashed with copious amounts of self-deceit, questioning, art, and that most dangerous of all substances in this world, Truth….Dunn delivers a tour-de-force which nicely portrays how art can impact life for the better.”
— The World Through Night-Tinted Glasses

“Michel has choreographed…a pair of scene changes are absolute delights. There’s also some very good work being done on Charles Duncombe’s Italian countryside set, most notably by Beyer (who delivers some priceless “reaction shots”), real-life couple Duncan and Roberts as a couple of quintessential show people, Johnston’s embittered Doris, and Dunn’s molto spumante Rudi. Best of all is the tall, dark, and handsome Sannazzaro, displaying effortless comedic panache as Anselmo while radiating the kind of charisma that had audiences swooning over Rupert Everett in My Best Friend’s Wedding.”
— StageScene LA

For tickets and reservations:
Cardenio tickets at TicketLeap

Cardenio by Stephen Greenblatt and Charles L. Mee
February 24 – March 26, 2023

Come and join us in the sunny hills of Italy for a romantic adventure as three mis-matched couples struggle to sort themselves out—even a newly married bride and groom! Noted Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt and Obie Award-winning playwright Charles L. Mee have re-made a “lost” comedy of Shakespeare’s into a contemporary delight. Anselmo, uncertain of his young bride Camila’s love persuades his best man to put her to the test. Her furious reaction, when she finds out, manages to send all three couples into confusion as their own conflicts come out in the open—with results that at first seem disastrous, but of course, end happily. Working from such texts as exist for this “holy grail” of Shakespeare lovers, Greenblatt and Mee have crafted a joyful play with all the hallmarks of Shakespeare’s great comedies: playful, sensual, sexy, filled with exuberant language, an intoxicating affirmation of the power of love—even if it begins in confusion.

Voice From Ukraine 2
Many thanks to all those who came to the reading last week. We raised $900. If you weren’t able to be there, we will post a video soon. For more information on how you can contribute to charities working on the ground in Ukraine, or to buy the book supporting Ukrainian writers, follow this link:
Voices from Ukraine 2
Vote For Us!

City Garage is a finalist as one of Santa Monica’s “Most Loved Businesses.”We’re listed under “Live Entertainment Venues” Please vote for us! Here is a link:

Santa Monica Most Loved Businesses.

Love,
Frederique 👠👠

Beach People

Bonjour Citygaragistes,

Join us at the beach for sun and fun with our sexy cast for the final weekend of “Beach People.” It’s been a hit with both audiences and critics. Don’t miss your last chance to see it before it leaves the stage.

Top Ten! Recommended!

“Michel’s staging balances the humor and pathos with equal panache and her cast does not equivocate. Beyer and Thompson hold our sympathy as the angst-ridden couple, and they deliver Duncombe’s machine-gun dialogue with skill and flamboyance.”
— Stage Raw

WOW!

“Impressively acted by a skin-revealing cast of four….Amazing…a hoot!”
— Stage Scene LA

Highly Recommended!
— Theatre in LAOn Stage Los Angeles

“Who ever heard of an existentialist rom com?….This is a fun idea. More though, it is a funny show….both broad and subtle….Genuinely delightful as well as silly (and painfully true).”
— The World Through Night Tinted Glasses

“A fast paced comical drama…leaning toward a lot of life’s questions that hold no answers. And that’s the best part!”
— Accessibly Live Off-Line

“Where is happiness found if not on a beach? It is that irony that is the center-piece to the theatrical excitement and excellently florid script of Beach People….which sings in the laughable absurdity of being inundated in such a technologically complex world whereby no one has any idea of how any of it all works.”
— Joseph Hazani, A Dilettante

If you haven’t got your tickets yet, get them today!

Reservations at TicketLeap
Proof of vaccination and masks required.

City Garage Underground: Final two shows of “Somebody Somewhere” by Anthony Sannazzaro
And don’t miss the last two performances of “Somebody Somewhere,” the first in our new City Garage Underground series. Written and directed Anthony Sannazzaro, the piece centers on a young man reliving the defining moments of his life and a man and woman dealing with the grief of loss. Last two shows this Wednesday and Thursday, September 7th and 8th . Here is a link for tickets:

Reservations at TicketLeap

Proof of vaccination and masks required for all performances at City Garage.

Merci, and see you soon at City Garage!

Love,

Frederique 👠👠

(Click on images to enlarge)


“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.


Picture of a Birthday 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:


Birthday Candles




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 👠👠

(Click on images to enlarge)


“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.

“Hughie” by Eugene O’Neill

Hughie promotional post card

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:

Broadway on Demand

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.

Animal Farm

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

(Click on images to enlarge)

The Ann Bronston Story Project

Bonjour Citygaragistes,

This weekend on the City Garage YouTube channel, we’re happy to present “The Ann Bronston Story Project,” a selection of stories written by company member Ann Bronston and performed by Troy Dunn, Lindsay Plake, and Martha Duncan. They are stories of love, loss, sex, and family that unravel the secret longings and conflicts that can both torment and transform us. I hope you will check them out. And on our web series “Animal Farm: Conversations on Theater and Politics with Steven Leigh Morris and Guests,” Steven talks with Gary Grossman, Artistic Director of the Skylight Theater about the continuing lobbying efforts to pass California Senate Bill 805 to help small nonprofits adapt to the requirements of AB5—especially LA’s alternative theaters.

Here is a link to talk show:
https://citygarage.org/animalfarm/

Correction: In last week’s episode we incorrectly identified our guest Angela J. Davis as a prosecutor for the LA County Superior Court. Our apologies. She was formerly a Federal Prosecutor for the Central District of California, and is now serving as a Commissioner for the LA County Superior Court’s Family Division.

And here is a link to “The Ann Bronston Story Project.” It will be showing on our City Garage YouTube channel from 8:00pm this Friday, June 11th, through noon on Friday, June 18th.

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
Support Us

SAVE THE DATE!

We’re also excited to announce a new project we’ve created just for streaming! Four monologues from “10 x 10” by Neil LaBute. LaBute is one of our favorite playwrights, someone who is willing to take an unflinching look at the truth of things. Not afraid to shock or offend. He pulls no punches and is always after the hard truth of what people do and why they do it. Make sure you mark next Friday, June 18th for the debut of our first original streaming project! More information to come in next week’s newsletter.

Merci,

FM

“Eurydice” by Sarah Ruhl

“Macbett” by Ionesco

There will be a reading of “Macbett” by Ionesco on Sunday, August 25 at 6:00pm.
Directed by Ann Bronston. Free.

“Eurydice” by Sarah Ruhl

Champagne Preview August 9
Opening Saturday August 10

Pulitzer-prize nominee Sarah Ruhl stands the Orpheus myth on its head and retells it from Eurydice’s point of view. Comic, tragic, silly and poetic in turns, this inventive play follows Eurydice as she does her best to adapt to life in the underworld.

Abandoned by her self-absorbed poet-lover, she rides elevators, has long conversations with stones, defends herself against suspicious men, and finds comfort in the companionship of the ghost of her dead father, though, to his sorrow, she cannot remember who he is. She struggles to recall what it was to be alive and who she was. At last, her easily distracted lover arrives to deliver her. Or will he?

“There’s a sort of beautiful simplicity to the production which makes it feel like a story of a couple who just happen to be dealing with the underworld. Rather than epic, it feels oddly, awkwardly human. It’s a Greek myth scaled down to human proportions. Instead of an all too perfect tragic love story between an untouchable young couple, it becomes the story of a woman who has a creepy guy hit on her on her wedding day. It’s simple, it’s quiet, it’s deeply personal. While this “Eurydice” sidesteps the grand gestures what it gains is simpler story of a woman who’s facing a hostile world with a husband who’s distracted, a man who keeps harassing her, and a world filled with rules to keep her life small. City Garage’s take…lets you hear the play and taps into a vein that feels honest and a bit raw.” — Anthony Byrnes, “Opening The Curtain” KCRW

“What Ruhl does, and this wonderful cast does under the direction of Frederique Michel, is focus not upon Orpheus but what this story means from Eurydice’s point of view….Words alone by a playwright rarely haunt or move. They are meant to be acted out, and this cast captures the eerie and quietly human voyage of these characters. City Garage can and often does perform outrageously stylized works. They do these so very well. But my favorites have always been when the simple life of the characters shine through, the decisions and consequences and experience of what is happening. Eurydice counts as one of my favorites from this company, because even a Stone, even a God, still seem somehow human. The humans meanwhile make me ache for them. Especially the title character, due in larger part to the actor who portrays her.” — David MacDowell Blue, Night Tinted Glasses

“Director Frederique Michel, designer Charles A. Duncombe, and videographer Anthony Sannazzaro—and of course the gifted cast—work considerable stage magic with Ruhl’s slight, whimsical, but (at times) charming play. I came away feeling glad I had seen it.” Will Manus, Total Theatre

“Eurydice is a whimsical, often thoughtful exploration of memory as life and loss of memory as death. There’s much more than a tragic love story here. Ruhl’s combination of Becket and Alice in Wonderland leaves a stream of thoughts trickling through your brain long after the flood of images has subsided.”
-Oakland Tribune

Fourth Weekend Q&A: Informal discussion with the cast, crew and director Sunday, September 1st, after the 3:00pm performance.

This project is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the California Arts Council, and by the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission.