“The House of Blue Leaves ”

By John Guare
Directed by Margot Abbott
Playing: November 6 - November 21, 2009

Directed byauthor, and Lively Arts columnist Margot Abbott, The House of Blue Leaves was written by John Guare and won the 1971 critics award and the Obie award as the best American play. It is a poignant, beautifully crafted piece that takes us back to 1965  to a shabby apartment in Queens on a day that the Pope is visiting New York.  Here the lives of zookeeper and aspiring songwriter Artie Shaughnessy, his aptly named wife Bananas, their soldier son and a few nuns collide with strange results.  Director Abbott certainly has a clear vision of the piece. “It's a great play for actors and when I was in acting classes, the monologues were done all the time.  But reading it for the first time in years, I realized - it is a great play for a director - a mix of black comedy, farce and kitchen-sink realism with a large helping of absurdist theatre.  I think the language is great and, even quite beautiful in places.  Is it depressing that the themes John Guare wrote about: celebrity, making money, being famous, costumes, family, religion, zoos, tv, songs, war, movies and terrorism are all absolutely relevant to America in 2009?  It's actually kind of scary.  But the play is funny.  If it weren't?  Well, it would be French where everyone winds up in worse or the same condition as when they started.” 

The cast includes JanLee Marshall as Bananas, who audiences may remember as B in last Season’s critically acclaimed Three Tall Women, veteran actor and RPE favorite Chris Chapman as Billy Einhorn.  We also have some very talented newcomers to RPE; Bruce Kaplan takes on Artie, Bonnie Lafer is Artie’s girlfriend the uber cook Bunny Flingus, and Christy Scott plays Corrinna Stroller the Hollywood “starlet”. RPE hopes to delight our existing audience members with this production and entice new ones into our theatre where they’ll be able to enjoy our newly remodeled space.

Danville website: Town of Danville and Role Players Ensemble