FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Bridget Bean, Gorilla Theatre
08/27/07
(813) 765-1486
info@gorillatheatre.com
RAG AND BONE BY NOAH HAIDLE
SEPT 6-23 AT THE GORILLA THEATRE
The Gorilla Theatre kicks off its 07-08 season with a surreal black comedy by the writer of Mr. Marmalade. Two brothers own a ladder shop that's actually a front for a bizarre transplant scheme. Hilarious, unusual, and ultimately touching, the play asks the question — how much emotion can we actually handle?
THE STORY: Two brothers, Jeff and George, run The Ladder Store, which is actually a front for their business in black-market hearts. In the world of RAG AND BONE, hearts are bought and sold for people who can't feel enough. The play begins when George steals the heart of a poet. The play then follows the poet with no heart; a hooker with a heart of gold; T-Bone, her pimp who feels too damn much; and the Millionaire, who eventually receives the poet's heart and sees a whole different world. Jeff and George recently lost their mother, but they put her heart into George's body, and all of a sudden he's wearing a dress, drinking martinis and cooking pot roasts. This is a heartfelt (excuse the pun) comedy about the limits of feeling, and the consequences of either feeling nothing or too damn much.
Originally inspired by Yeats's poem "The Circus Animal's Desertion" the play explores possibilities of moving hearts into different boundaries, into the bodies of diversely discontented people searching to feel something different.
The poem's final stanza contains the play's title:
We are dropped into a new world of cartoon logic when Jeff, the "slow," gentle and whimsical younger brother asks George, "Do you think you could make a ladder that goes all the way to the moon?" George, unfailingly pragmatic, tries to explain the practical objections to such a scheme: "the ozone layer, the earth's rotation, insurance." Jeff, undaunted, asks, "How about a ladder to heaven? That's where Mom is. She said she'd wait for me." "Mom's dead in the ground, Jeff. She's not waiting for you anywhere," is George's cruel reply.
George and Jeff's opposed attitudes are elevated into conflicting metaphysical poles that the playwright uses to organize events. One brother wants to make a ladder to heaven; the other secretly performs black-market heart transplants for customers dissatisfied with their own hearts and willing to pay for an upgrade. Money and Heart are figures for numbness and perception. But they are also objects recycled like Yeats's refuse of old bottles, bones and rags within Haidle's simple yet effective pattern."
— Gordon Carver
"Haidle is an engaging writer who creates startling theatrical conceits, intriguing themes and offbeat characters…his nonrealistic style is bold and imaginative..." —Variety. "...vividly bold, wildly imaginative and utterly charming...Its humor and poignancy are genuine..." —CT Central.
Directed by Ami Sallee Corley ("Bug") and starring Lothar Bergeest, Mike Buck, Chris Rutherford, Kevin Whalin, Charles Wilcox, Nicole Paris Williams, and Nikki J Smith.
The Gorilla Theatre is offering free tickets to Rag and Bone to all college freshmen (subject to availability). Reservations and ID are required.
Thursdays at 7pm -- Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm -- Sundays at 3pm
Gorilla Theatre, 4419 N. Hubert Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33614
"Behind Steinbrenner Field"
Full price: $20 Thur, $25 Fri, Sat, Sun
Seniors and Students: $15 Thur, $20 Fri, Sat, Sun
Student rush $10, 30 min before the show when available.
Flexible season pass and group rates available
RESERVATIONS: (813) 879-2914 or gorillatheatre.com
Tucked away in the same Tampa location for over 14 years, the Gorilla Theatre boasts an intimate, welcoming environment and productions that don't insult your intelligence. With 76 plushly-upholstered seats, there isn't a bad seat in the house. Savor wine or organic coffee in comfort while you enjoy excellent theatre that you won't see elsewhere.
CONTACT: Bridget Bean, Gorilla Theatre
08/27/07
(813) 765-1486
info@gorillatheatre.com
RAG AND BONE BY NOAH HAIDLE
SEPT 6-23 AT THE GORILLA THEATRE
The Gorilla Theatre kicks off its 07-08 season with a surreal black comedy by the writer of Mr. Marmalade. Two brothers own a ladder shop that's actually a front for a bizarre transplant scheme. Hilarious, unusual, and ultimately touching, the play asks the question — how much emotion can we actually handle?
THE STORY: Two brothers, Jeff and George, run The Ladder Store, which is actually a front for their business in black-market hearts. In the world of RAG AND BONE, hearts are bought and sold for people who can't feel enough. The play begins when George steals the heart of a poet. The play then follows the poet with no heart; a hooker with a heart of gold; T-Bone, her pimp who feels too damn much; and the Millionaire, who eventually receives the poet's heart and sees a whole different world. Jeff and George recently lost their mother, but they put her heart into George's body, and all of a sudden he's wearing a dress, drinking martinis and cooking pot roasts. This is a heartfelt (excuse the pun) comedy about the limits of feeling, and the consequences of either feeling nothing or too damn much.
Originally inspired by Yeats's poem "The Circus Animal's Desertion" the play explores possibilities of moving hearts into different boundaries, into the bodies of diversely discontented people searching to feel something different.
The poem's final stanza contains the play's title:
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,"Haidle has taken Yeats's metaphors of ladder and heart, as well as the figures of the searching Poet and raving slut, and transformed them into literal building materials for a theatrical environment.
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.
We are dropped into a new world of cartoon logic when Jeff, the "slow," gentle and whimsical younger brother asks George, "Do you think you could make a ladder that goes all the way to the moon?" George, unfailingly pragmatic, tries to explain the practical objections to such a scheme: "the ozone layer, the earth's rotation, insurance." Jeff, undaunted, asks, "How about a ladder to heaven? That's where Mom is. She said she'd wait for me." "Mom's dead in the ground, Jeff. She's not waiting for you anywhere," is George's cruel reply.
George and Jeff's opposed attitudes are elevated into conflicting metaphysical poles that the playwright uses to organize events. One brother wants to make a ladder to heaven; the other secretly performs black-market heart transplants for customers dissatisfied with their own hearts and willing to pay for an upgrade. Money and Heart are figures for numbness and perception. But they are also objects recycled like Yeats's refuse of old bottles, bones and rags within Haidle's simple yet effective pattern."
— Gordon Carver
"Haidle is an engaging writer who creates startling theatrical conceits, intriguing themes and offbeat characters…his nonrealistic style is bold and imaginative..." —Variety. "...vividly bold, wildly imaginative and utterly charming...Its humor and poignancy are genuine..." —CT Central.
Directed by Ami Sallee Corley ("Bug") and starring Lothar Bergeest, Mike Buck, Chris Rutherford, Kevin Whalin, Charles Wilcox, Nicole Paris Williams, and Nikki J Smith.
The Gorilla Theatre is offering free tickets to Rag and Bone to all college freshmen (subject to availability). Reservations and ID are required.
Thursdays at 7pm -- Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm -- Sundays at 3pm
Gorilla Theatre, 4419 N. Hubert Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33614
"Behind Steinbrenner Field"
Full price: $20 Thur, $25 Fri, Sat, Sun
Seniors and Students: $15 Thur, $20 Fri, Sat, Sun
Student rush $10, 30 min before the show when available.
Flexible season pass and group rates available
RESERVATIONS: (813) 879-2914 or gorillatheatre.com
Tucked away in the same Tampa location for over 14 years, the Gorilla Theatre boasts an intimate, welcoming environment and productions that don't insult your intelligence. With 76 plushly-upholstered seats, there isn't a bad seat in the house. Savor wine or organic coffee in comfort while you enjoy excellent theatre that you won't see elsewhere.
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