CONTEMPORARY COMEDY TO TAKE AUDIENCE ON A TIME-BENDING ROLLER COASTER RIDE THROUGH HISTORY
The Department of Theatre presents “Outrage” by American playwright Itamar Moses. The contemporary comedy, which deftly moves between the present day and three other time periods with energy and wit, premiered at Portland Center Stage in 2003.
The show will run Wednesday, Jan. 19 through Sunday, Jan. 23 with a second run Tuesday, Jan. 25 through Sunday, Jan. 30. Curtain times will be 8 p.m., except the Sunday shows at 3 p.m. only. Performances will take place in the Chapel Theatre, 172 Calhoun St.
Tickets may be purchased at the box office or by telephone 843-953-5604. Admission is $15 for general admission and $10 for College of Charleston students, faculty and staff and senior citizens 60 and older. Half Season subscriptions are available.
The story centers around a slacker graduate student’s attempt to find an “easy” thesis topic, which places him at the center of an escalating power struggle to control the future of a prestigious university. As he explores the price that Socrates, legendary playwright Bertolt Brecht, and a sixteenth century Italian miller paid for sticking to their beliefs, he discovers that even in the ivory tower, principles still have a cost. An irreverent epic, it explores the power of martyrdom, the power of theatre, the threat of new thought, and how the revolutionary of one era becomes the tyrant of the next.
Director and Theatre Professor Allen Lyndrup comments, “The talented cast of College of Charleston theatre students, featuring Mary Rogers McMaster, George Metropolis, Nick Smithson, and Ryan Masson, have been working extremely hard sorting out the multi-layered script, while they explore and develop their characters and find the offbeat humor of the piece. A lively chorus comments on the play as it unfolds to help the audience better understand what’s happening, or–are they there to confuse them? The production also features the work of three student designers: Miriam Callahan has created a set that appears to be a stopping-off point in our expanding universe, to contrast Alex Kosbab’s campus-inspired, cleverly “jokey” costumes. Julia Phipps’ task as lighting designer is to keep the various locations and centuries separate, except, of course, when they bump into each other.”