A Stoppard Duo - After Magritte and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet By Tom Stoppard

A Stoppard Duo “After Magritte” & “The Fifteen Minute Hamlet” By Tom Stoppard

Directed by Mary Machala & Roger Tompkins

“There is obviously a perfectly logical reason for everything.” So says Tom Stoppard, master of comic befuddlement and farce extraordinaire. In his one-act After Magritte,” Stoppard tackles identity and individual perception with a tuba, waders, a fruit basket, assorted gun cartridges, light bulbs and a host of other objects.

The play opens on ballroom dancers Reginald and Thelma Harris in varying stages of undress, with Mother lying on the ironing board and a policeman looking through the window. Into this questionable domestic scene bursts Sherlock Holmes wannabe Inspector Foot. Absurdity gradually gives way to a skewed logic via misinterpretations and an incongruous police investigation. It’s vintage Stoppard, separating reality from…well, reality.

“His plays have a brilliant theatricality... things are never quite what they seem to be." Mel Gussow, American Theatre (December, 1995) After Magritte is loaded with Stoppard's dazzling use of language and wit plus his ingeniously clever devices and tricks that challenge us to ‘see what we see.’ It all serves some end – even it if that end turns out to be completely unexpected.

Tom Stoppard is one of the leading playwrights of the past half-century. From his early triumph in the 1960s, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, he has continued to present plays decade after decade that have been greeted with both critical and popular acclaim. Stoppard has also enjoyed considerable success with his many screenplays, most notably the Academy Award-winning Shakespeare in Love. From The Complete Review, www.complete-review.com.

Directed by Mary Machala

Featuring

Courtney Bohl , Chris Hille, Michael LoSasso, Matt Middleston, & Aaron Ousley

Tom Stoppard’s Fifteen Minute Hamlet is for those who can’t afford the normal 4 hours it takes to watch Shakespeare’s immortal classic. This is a comedy of massive indecision by one of the world’s great equivocators, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Except in this play he makes up him mind faster than one of his usually long speeches. After all he’s only go 15 minutes.

For those of you living in isolation, Hamlet, see’s the ghost of his father who informs him that his brother poisoned him so that he could marry his wife, so Hamlet spends the rest of the play trying to figure out if and how he should revenge his father’s death while driving his girlfriend crazy, killing her father, insulting his uncle/stepfather and slapping his mother/aunt around while trying to exhibit the nobility of man in this somewhat dysfunctional family.

The play takes about the same amount of time as it took me to create the last sentence. As an added bonus, the cast is largely female. So if you’re a fan of Hamlet, hotties, and hilarity, this “play’s the thing!”

Directed by Roger Tompkins

Sharon Dummar, Matthew Gilbert, Nick Mathews, Kirsten McCory, Kat Schroeder, & Hayley Wolf as the ensemble.

Link for Press Photos http://stonesouptheatre.com/pressphotos.php

All Photos by Erik Stuhaug

A Stoppard Duo : Fifteen Minute Hamlet #1
Sharon Dummar & Kat Schroeder

A Stoppard Duo : Fifteen Minute Hamlet #2
Kirsten McCory, Matt Gilbert, Kat Schroeder, Sharon Dummar & Nick Mathews

A Stoppard Duo : Fifteen Minute Hamlet #3
Sharon Dummar & Kat Schroeder

A Stoppard Duo : Fifteen Minute Hamlet #4
Sharon Dummar & Kat Schroeder

A Stoppard Duo : After Magritte #5
Michael LoSasso, Aaron Ousley, Chris Hille, Matt Middleston & Courtney Bohl

Date and Time: October 29 – November 23, 2008

Time: Thursday – Saturday 8:00pm, Sunday Matinee 3:30pm

Pay-what-you-will

- Wednesday Oct 29 (Preview) & Thursdays (November 6, 13, & 20)

- Advance tickets for Thursday $18, Pay-what-you-will at the door ONLY!
- Friday & Saturday Nights are $23.50
- Sunday Matinees, $18.00
- Students & Seniors, $15
- TPS Members, $10 (must show membership card)
- Opening Weekend Gala, Saturday November 1, $30, With Pre & Post show party with the cast!

Support the opening of Stone Soup Theatre’s “The DownStage” by purchasing Gala tickets for Saturday, November 1, which include pre-show wine & cheese gathering and post show party.

Tickets: $30.

Ask about our Flex Pass

(8 Tickets for $110 or 4 Tickets for $55)

Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com, 800-838-3006 or Stone Soup Box Office (206) 633-1883. 4029 Stone Way N. Seattle WA 98103

Email: info@stonesouptheatre.com
www.stonesouptheatre.com