It's 1936, the height of the Depression, and things are tough all over - even in the luxurious first class cabin of Max and George, Broadway's hottest hitmakers. When their ship returns to New York in five days, they must deliver a copy of their latest comedy smash. There's just one small problem: Max has discovered Karl Marx. Now he wants to write trenchant social drama for the proletariat, not bang-up comedy for the bourgeoisie. Can their agent convince Max of the error of his ways and avoid going back to selling bibles? Will George be able to sneak punch-lines into Max's "Communist Manifesto"? Nelson's riotous farce masterfully mixed the classic screwball comedies of the '30s with an acerbic wit and political satire that is purely contemporary.

What can you possibly say about a play that contains a boy raised by raccoons, an Angel of the Lord in the body of a high school beauty queen, an ex-con turned televangelist, a plague of bugs and fire and pestilence, a man in a carp suit and half-a-day? Welcome to the wonderful world of Kevin Kling and Lloyd’s Prayer. Kling is a true original —as playwright, actor, storyteller and performance artist—and Lloyd's Prayer is a perfect introduction to the highly theatrical, wonderfully skewed vision ofthe world that infuses all of his work.

Bob — a.k.a. The Beast Boy — was raised by raccoons, but is slowly realizing that he must leave the animal kingdom behind and join the world of humans. It's a tough transition, though, for someone taught to wash his food before dinner and whose communication skills are limited to, well, chattering like a raccoon. Caught in a steel trap, Bob is adopted by a suburban couple who recognize him as one of their own, but who keep him locked in a cage, unsure whether to treat him as a son or a pet.

Lloyd has been locked in a cage of a different sort —jail. A con man with a golden tongue, Lloyd is an outsider, a man who has lost his faith in God — but not the almighty dollar. When he discovers Bob, he sees the potential of the ”little fur-bearing gold mine" and hits the religion circuit, gathering donations to “save little Bobby from the devil." Although Lloyd begins to care for the boy, he doesn't see the problem in exploiting one of God’s creatures to make a fast buck.

But God does. He dispatches an Angel — who just happens to borrow the body of a local beauty queen -to stop Lloyd from taking advantage of his young charge and start giving him the guidance and affection he needs. Only by recognizing his genuine need for others, and his ability to care for someone other than himself, can "Lloyd’s prayer" be answered.

This funny and heartfelt saga of a Jewish family in New York during the 1950s is drawn from the short stories of Delmore Schwartz, whose intensely autobiographical writings captured immigrant Jewish families at odds with their Depression-stymied children trying to fit into the ‘new world’.

Brilliantly combining unrelated incidents and characters from three of Schwaitz’s short stories with events and characters of his own imagining, Brogger has created an original and contemporary work infused with Schwa1tz’s spirit. Schwartz coined the phrase ‘the world is a wedding’, and A Normal Life is about the marriages — both literal and figurative — that we make throughout our lives. Rebecca Hart, a ‘spinster’ dress designer, believes she can change her life by getting married, but is unprepared for the effect her decision will have on those around her. Both the living and the dead will have opinions about this marriage.

Ruth Hart, the proud matriarch who holds her family together, enlists the help of Jacob Baumann, a family friend and life insurance salesman, to find potential husbands. Initially, Rebecca resists the idea of an arranged marriage, but will consider wedding a chosen suitor for what she thinks are purely pragmatic reasons; all she wants is a normal life. Marriage, however, may change her own life in ways she doesn’t suspect. Rebecca’s brother and sister, Seymour and Sarah, are also trying to change their lives but — in marked contrast to their more practical sister — their desire is fraught with false hopes and expectations. Seymour is an itinerant young man, constantly gambling away the family savings and dreaming of the big payday that will make the family rich. Sarah is also clinging to a dream of riches: she believes her dead husband has left her a millionaire. Sarah temporarily moves back home with her intelligent and highly sensitive young son, Jasper, but her stay may be more permanent than she thinks. While the characters struggle to deal with changes in their lives, young Jasper views them with wide-eyed wonder. Suddenly aware the he is connected to a larger family — and 5 larger world — he will be deeply affected by the actions of those around him as he grows up. As the wedding approaches and the Hart’s prepare to add a new member to the family, Brogger weaves a rich tapestry where memories of the past and dreams of the future merge to reveal who we are, who we were and what we might become.

Born In The RSA will bring to ACT one of South Africa’s most influential theatrical and political voices. Barney Simon, Artistic Director of the Market Theatre of Johannesburg and director of the hit Woza Albert/, returns to Seattle with a riveting work about life — both black and white — and the conflicting demands of loyalty in today’s South Africa.

According to Simon, Born In The RSA was initiated “in a period of paralyzing uncertainty around mid—’85...soon after the first state of emergency was declared” in the Republic of South Africa. In creating this extraordinary “living newspaper”, Simon and his multiracial company combined the techniques of journalism and theatre, drawing material from research and personal interviews. They have fashioned an incomparably powerful theatrical event where individuals take the stage to speak directly to the audience about the incendiary issues constantly threatening to engulf daily life in South Africa, effectively putting a human face on the tragedy of apartheid. At the heart of the play is a story of betrayal. Glen, a handsome but easily corruptible white university student, is gradually drawn into becoming a police informer. He deserts his pregnant wife and becomes embroiled in an affair with Susan, a white art teacher who is also a political activist. Glen has no qualms about using her as a pawn to infiltrate the ranks of the anti-apartheid movement, and as Susan falls in love with him, she unwittingly leads the police to Thinjiwe, a charismatic black trade unionist high on the government’s most wanted list.

After Susan and Thinjiwe are arrested, the play brilliantly illustrates how incidents can ripple outward, creating a web that ensnares people only peripherally involved in the transpiring events; it is suddenly a crime to know, or be related to, the wrong person. Susan’s friend Mia, a white lawyer/advocate for victims of wrongful arrest and brutality, puts herself at risk by becoming involved in their defense. Thinjiwe’s ten-year-old nephew is arrested on trumped up charges, tragically drawing her sister, Sindiswa, and boarder, Zack, into the police state’s machinations.

Undeniably powerful even if it were fabricated, the play’s impact is magnified by the fact that everything is based on actual people and events. The material is strengthened by the obvious commitment to deal with the issues in relation to blacks and whites, men and women, young and old. Perhaps most remarkable is the way the play refuses to paint its characters as heroes and villains, their actions as good or evil. These are flesh-and-blood characters, complex people dealing with complex issues. The play is not interested in providing easy answers but, rather, is intent on encouraging active discussion and debate.

ACT is proud to be presenting this especially timely theatrical event to Seattle audiences. Born In The RSA will be co-produced in association with the Northlight Theatre, the Chicago International Theatre Festival and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

Previously produced at Actors Theatre of St. Paul, Four Oar Fathers — which playwright Jon Klein describes as a “feverish comedy about growing up Catholic in Kentucky" — provides a humorous look at fatherhood, failure, and forgiveness. This is the West Coast premiere of Four Our Fathers.

Christopher Steiner is a too, too serious young man who has always been more comfortable philosophizing about life than participating in it. Now, estranged from his wife and newborn son, Christopher is forced to examine his past in hopes of making some sense of his life. On a journey through three decades in his fevered memory, he must come face to face with broken relationships, missed opportunities and the not always welcome memories of the “fathers” who influenced his life.

The play is filled with the humor of recognition while we watch Christopher's progression from adolescence to adulthood, as he attends his first confession, makes his first best friend, experiences his first seduction, dutifully marries his college sweetheart and fruitlessly pursues a career as a singer/songwriter. Through it all, he is possessed by an earnest desire to do what is “right” according to his own well-intentioned, but unrealistic, moral code. “Why are you so smart about things you never gonna need,” asks his friend Pee jay, “and so dumb about human facts?"

The play follows Christopher’s attempts to answer this question, examining his relationships with the men who helped shape his life; his bullying best friend Pee Jay and his alcoholic father; Father Jenson, the slightly radical parish priest; and Jesse Paxton, his fiancée’s dog-breeding father who is quite a philosopher himself.

At the heart of the dilemma, however, is Christopher’s relationship with his dad, Eddie. Unable — or unwilling — to connect with his own father, Christopher has always been quick to seek the guidance of the other men in his life, willfully ignoring the one man closest to him. Only by breaking down the emotional barriers which separate him from his father, can Christopher come to terms with his own fatherhood.

While the play deals with serious issues, it contains liberal amounts of the humor for which Klein’s work is known. A native of Kentucky, Klein just moved to Seattle from Atlanta, where the Alliance Theatre recently produced his play Southern Cross. His play T Bone N Weasel, recipient of the HBO Playwrights USA award, has been produced by regional theatres across the country, and Klein-is currently at work on a film version for the Turner Entertainment Network. His other plays include Bluegrass, Losing It, Fault Line, Peoria and The Einstein Project, written with Paul D‘Andrea. Klein is an alumni of the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis, and the recipient of fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Bush and McKnight Foundations and the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to continuing work on Four Oar Fathers, Klein is currently writing an adaptation of Stendahl’s The Rea and the Blade, commissioned by ACT.

ACT’s 1990 season is sure to close with a theatrical “bang” with the Northwest Premiere of Tom Stoppard’s comic espionage thriller Hapgood, the British playwright’s first new work in over seven years. Stoppard’s verbal gymnastics, dazzling theatrics and razor-sharp wit are all on full display in this gripping tale of spies, motherhood and quantum physics.

Stoppard wastes no time plunging the audience into the world of high-level espionage and political intrigue. Hapgood is head of her own British Secret Service unit, running counterintelligence against the KGB. Crucial to her plans is Kerner, the Russian physicist spy she “turned” into a double agent and is using to leak false information back to Moscow. Trouble strikes when the Russians start getting genuine military secrets; someone is staging an elaborate double-cross, and the “mole” must be rooted out before any more damage is done.

But who is the traitor? Has Kerner become a triple agent, working for the Russians? What about Hapgood herself? Her bagman Ridley, who seems to have an itchy trigger finger? Or even the genial spymaster Blair, Hapgood’s superior? Potential doubles, dualities and duplicities abound.

Hapgood’s own dual nature is suggested by her codename; “Mother.” At once tough and compassionate, efficient and anarchic, paternal and maternal, she is a mother, trying to balance single parenthood with her perilous job. When her son becomes a pawn in this deadly spy game, will Hapgood‘s maternal instincts prevent her from doing her ruthless job?

Quantum theory, and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, explained how light can be both particle and wave — the electrons have no specific identity, they change according to how they are observed. “A spy is like a trick of the light,” notes Kerner. “You get what you interrogate for.” But how can a double agent be in two places at the same time? Quantum mechanics is at the heart of this mystery, with Stoppard brilliantly using the concepts of modern physics as a metaphor for the world of espionage — where nothing is what it seems and no one is as they appear — and to explore the duality of human nature.