Diversionary Theatre will present Tom Jacobson’s new play Bunbury, a serious play for trivial people, as the sixth and final show of their 2006-2007 season. When he finds out that he is only a fictitious character who never appears in The Importance of Being Earnest, Bunbury uses his double anonymity to infiltrate and alter classic literature, starting by accidentally giving Romeo and Juliet a happy ending. The resulting transformation of such classics asThe Three Sisters, A Streetcar Named Desire, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Waiting for Godot, and evenEdgar Allan Poe's The Raven spawns a new sub-discipline in literary criticism and may even change the world. A comedy that proves everyone's life means something--even if they don't exist!
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David McBean |
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Diane Addis |
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Chris Buess |
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Melissa Fernandes |
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Aaron Marcotte |
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John Rosen |
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Wendy
Waddell |
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Tom Zohar |
The play will feature David McBean in the title role, and will run May 18-June 17.
The Los Angeles Times said this of the October 2005 Los Angeles premiere: “In Bunbury, playwright Tom Jacobson fashions a character for Oscar Wilde's unseen plot device from The Importance of Being Earnest and sends him into giddy collision with various coevals from classic plays. Merely that aspect of this ingenious fantasia 'A serious play for trivial people' - will seduce theater buffs...”
LAist.com said Bunbury was “poignant...A rambunctious, big-hearted play-about-plays. The writing is funny, poignant, and provocative. The concept of this play is clever enough for even Wilde to be amused. It argues that the most important characters in any piece are the ones off stage, and the most important people in our lives the ones we ignore. Jacobson wants us to look more closely at the people and things in our lives that are swept under the carpet.”
Tom Jacobson is a playwright who has had more than 50 productions in Los Angeles and around the country, including The Beloved Disciple, Cyberqueer, and Degenerate Art. Recent adaptations of Sperm at Circle X and The Orange Grove at Playwrights Arena were Critic’s Choice in the Los Angeles Times. He is a co-literary manager of The Theatre @ Boston Court, a founding member of Playwrights Ink, and a board member of Cornerstone Theater Company. He teaches playwriting and related courses for UCLA Extension. In the fall of 2005 he collaborated with The Road Theatre Company on a sold-out, extended run of Bunbury following their 1998 production of Tainted Blood (winner of seven Valley Theatre League Awards) and their 2004 production of Ouroboros (Garland Award for playwriting, LA Weekly Awards for playwriting and Production of the Year).
Diversionary’s production will be directed by Esther Emery. The cast features David McBean playing the title character, Diane Addis, Chris Buess, Melissa Fernandes, Aaron Marcotte, John Rosen, Wendy Waddell and Tom Zohar.
Diversionary Theatre was started in 1986. The mission of the theatre is to produce plays with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themes that portray characters in their complexity and diversity both historically and contemporarily.
Bunbury will preview on Friday, May 18 and open on Saturday, May 19 and run through Sunday, June 17. Performance times are: Thursday at 7:30pm, Friday and Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 2:00 and 7:00pm, and a Monday, June 4 performance at 7:30pm. Tickets are $29 for Friday and Saturday performances, and $27 for other nights, with a $4 discount for students/seniors 60+/military. Tickets for opening night are $39 and includes a post-show cast party.
Sales to groups of 10 or more as well as single tickets are now on sale. For tickets or information, call the Diversionary box office at 619.220.0097 or log on to www.diversionary.org.
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The City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture provides major support for Diversionary Theatre. |
Bunbury
Now thru June 17, 2007
This is the last show of
Diversionary's 2006-2007 season.
Thursday at 7:30pm; Friday & Saturday at 8pm
Sunday at 2 & 7pm; Monday, June 4 at 7:30pm
Please note:
- no Sunday evening performance June 10
- no Sunday matinee performance June 17
Thursday, Sunday and Monday performances: $27
Friday and Saturday: $29
Students/Seniors 60+/Military: $4 off
Student Rush: $9.00 tickets for students w/ID starting one hour before curtain.
Please ask for the discount at time of purchase.
Bring a Group and Save!
Groups of 10+ /$4.00 off each ticket
Groups of 30+/$8.00 off each ticket
REFERENCED WORKS OF LITERATURE
Prepared for the Director and
Cast of Bunbury
by Kenda Ricciardelli, Dramaturg
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams.
Arabian Nights. Every day Shahryar (Persian for king) would marry a new virgin, and every day he would send yesterday’s wife to be beheaded. Scheherazade, the legendary Persian queen, put off her fate by telling the king fascinating stories, which always had to be continued the next night.
Bartleby The Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street by Herman Melville. First published in 1853; the narrator of Melville’s book is a Lawyer who runs a law practice on Wall Street.
Candide is a 1759 controversial novel by Voltaire, written under the pseudonym: Monsieur le docteur Ralph (Mister Doctor Ralph). The novels sardonic outlook follows the naive Candide from his first exposure to the belief that “all is for the best in this, the best of all possible worlds.” Candide clings to this belief despite all the adventures in his life dramatically disprove it.
Cavafy. Constantine P. Cavafy, prominent Greek Poet (April 29, 1863-April 29, 1933)
The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser (1552-1599). English poet and controversial figure due to his zeal for the destruction of Irish culture. In The Faerie Queen, Spenser creates an allegory, symbolic of the real world. Characters represent the two virtues he considers most important, Holiness and Chastity. In the end, aided by strength and the grace of God, the characters are able to conquer the dragon that represents all the evil in the world.
Good-bye, Mr. Chips, a novel by James Hilton published in 1934. Mr. Chipping, a much loved school teacher at Brookfield boys’ school conquers his inability to connect with the boys and his shyness when he marries Katherine. In 1969 the musical version of this book was made into a movie starring Peter O’Toole and Petula Clark.
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde.
Love Among The Ruins. 1975 TV movie starring Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Oliver, directed by George Cukor. An aging actress is being sued for breech of promise. She hires her lawyer who was an ex lover, who is still in love with her. He finds the only way to win this case and protect her assets is to ruin her reputation.
Madam Bovary. Written by Gustave Flaubert in 1856. Emma Bovary is a woman suffering from her character. She ruins herself and her family because of her great desire of splendor, comfort and amusements. She suffered so much and had so much pain in this life, she committed suicide by drinking arsenic.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. First published in 1890; Wilde’s only novel.
The Rime of The Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. First published in 1798; the Mariner’s tale begins with his ship unfortunately driven off course by a storm.
Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. First published in 1774; a collection of letters written by Werther, a young artist of a highly sensitive and passionate temperament to his friend Wilhelm.
Swinburne. Algernon Charles Swinburne; April 15, 1837-April 10, 1909. A Victorian era English poet. Highly controversial containing themes of Sadomasochism, Deathwish, Lesbianism, and irreligion. He was considered a decadent poet, although he professed to more vice than he actually indulged in as Oscar Wilde famously commented on.
Totentanz-Dance of Death, a symphonic piece by Franz
List. Strindberg wrote a play called Dance of Death. It was done on Broadway with Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen.
Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf? |
