Wedding Night Published

My short play Wedding Night, which previously had a staged reading in D.C. at Anacostia Playhouse, is now published in PSA, the journal of the Pirandello Society of America.

The play is freely adapted from Luigi Pirandello’s short story “Prima notte,” which was first published in 1900. It follows a young woman saying goodbye to her mother on her wedding night. Both know the coming marriage will not be ideal, but as darkness descends, new possibilities emerge that no one ever anticipated.

My play is included alongside three other dramas also inspired by Pirandello short stories. These are If by Robert Brophy adapted from the story “Se…” (“If…”), Vilomah (a Sanskrit word meaning “against the order of things”) by Elisabetta Bracer adapted from “Quando si comprende” (“War”), and To the Moon and Back by Joshua Piper adapted from “Una Giornata” (“A Single Day”).

Early in his career, Pirandello began writing plays that were considered Theatre of the Grotesque. These plays used what he called “umorismo” which is a type of painful laughter that accompanies a sense of tragic bewilderment. Stefano Boselli, the Theatre and Performance Outreach Officer for PSA, mentioned Wedding Night’s connection to umorismo in a forward to the four plays.

Boselli, who also goes by the stage name Stebos, is a talented director in addition to being a scholar. He has directed original and classic works, including plays originally performed by the Theatre du Grand-Guignol.

The Best of the Grand Guignol

The Theatre du Grand-Guignol opened in Paris in 1897, serving up concoctions of naughty sex farces and horrifying blood baths to audiences looking for a thrill. This venerable (or not) institution shut down in 1962, but The Flea Theater has revived a number of its plays for its Cutthroat Series.

Last year, audiences were treated (or subjected) to evenings of short Guignol plays, all revolving around a particular theme, such as lust or gore. Audiences voted for their favorites, and now the best of those plays have returned for a victory lap at the Flea.

I went last night, and had a fiendishly good time. The first play was Tics, or Doing the Deed by Rene Berton. When I saw this splendid production (directed by Stebos) last year, one of the main actors had recently injured himself, so his bizarre physical tic was a comically shaking leg. Now, back at full strength, he is able to do what he originally planned. The result is downright acrobatic.

The second play was Agnosiophobia by the contemporary playwright Jason Gray Platt, though it was billed as an adaptation of a play by Giuseppe Giacosa. The piece takes its name from the fear of not knowing something, and it portrays a husband who torments himself over the exact nature of the relationship between his wife and a friend who recently committed suicide. The play is mainly psychological horror, until the very last moment.

Next up was Private Room #6 by Andre de Lorde, the principle author for the Grand-Guignol for more than 25 years at the beginning of the 20th century. Though de Lorde often collaborated with other authors, the Flea gave him sole billing for this one. (Pierre Chaine is sometimes listed as co-author.) This production was of the adaptation Jose Levy did for the London version of the Grand-Guignol, which flourished briefly in the 1920s. Rest assured, both revenge and Russians are on the menu.

The final play was The System, an adaptation de Lorde did of Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether." Poe has always been a great favorite with the French, and de Lorde also adapted for the stage "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Masque of the Red Death," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." This darkly comic play is surprisingly close to Poe's original, though the gore at the end is a bit different from what Poe describes.

These plays are still showing until January 25, so get your tickets here:

The Flea Theater

Grand Guignol

Last night, I had the pleasure of attending the Theatre du Grand-Guignol in Paris!

Well, not quite, but The Flea Theatre did perform three plays from the Grand-Guignol tradition. The performances were a part of their "Cutthroat Series" and the theme for the evening was Gore. This was not a case of false advertising, by the way.

The first play, Madhouse, was originally written by Andre de Lord (the most prolific author of plays for the Grand Guignol) and Alfred Binet. Corbin Went did the adaptation for the piece, which follows a young woman about to be released from an insane asylum. If she can survive the night....

At the original Grand Guignol during the turn of the century, horror plays would alternate with short sex comedies, and the Flea stuck to that method by following up Madhouse with Tics, or Doing the Deed by Rene Berton. Directed by Stebos, whose wonderful production of The Cherry Orchard I saw a while back, this light-hearted romp was probably the most successful of the three pieces. Three men with post-coital tics find themselves being very naughty... and then being found out.

The Final Kiss filled out the evening. This play by Maurice Level tells the story of the victim of a vitriol attack who actually speaks out in order to get a lighter sentence for the woman who splashed acid in his face. Of course, he might have had other motives than pure benevolence. This 1912 play had staying power, and even made it into horror comics of the 1950s. It's worth checking out.

At the end of the evening, the audience is invited to vote for their favorite play. The Cutthroat series has more installments, featuring plays on Cruelty, Night Terrors, and Lust. The winners will return for an extended run in January.

The series runs through December 22nd. Find out more here:

The Flea Theater