Witold Gombrowicz’s play Princess Ivona dir. by Omar Sangare
Friday, January 15, 2016 – Saturday, January 16, 2016
Jan. 15 @ 8 pm
Jan. 16 @ 2 pm & 8 pm
The Clurman Theater
412 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036
(212) 279-4200
Tickets:
$35 plus $1.25 theatre restoration charge
Available at Theatre Row Box Office or Telecharge at 212.239.6200 online at www.telecharge.com
Following a successful premiere on campus, a cast of Williams College students is bringing their production to New York. Princess Ivona is an absurdist dark comedy by Witold Gombrowicz, a novelist and playwright international theater artists, scholars and readers consider one of the 20th century’s greatest.
Gombrowicz attacked the restrictions of social convention with biting humor. His works rankled the establishment with their irreverent, dissident views, serving up a lively blend of religious satire, class struggle, and scatological humor.
The play challenges a society of empty platitudes with a fresh, young, spontaneous approach. The protagonists ask why one should keep doing things just because this is how we did them in the past. Why is a prince allowed to marry only a princess and what if he does not wish to do so? This comic fable by the absurdist master playwright explores what happens when genteel facades are shattered, fear and humiliation take over, and repressed human brutality gushes to the surface.
Witold Gombrowicz’s life and works were most recently reminded to New York audiences on the occasion of Atlantic Theater Company production of 3 Kinds of Exile by John Guare. Born in Poland, Gombrowicz spent most of his life in exile in Argentina and died in France. He left Poland shortly before World War II, and decided not to return after the Communist regime seized power. His plays were banned in his homeland until the mid-1980s. According to literatary historians, Gombrowicz was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature in 1968 , and lost to the winner by only one vote.
This production at the Clurman Theater is directed by Omar Sangare, a theater professor at Williams and founder of New York City’s United Solo Festival. He is joined by an international creative team, including Pablo Aran Gimeno and Jorge Puerta Armenta.
This production is presented under the auspices of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York, in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, D.C., the Polish Cultural Institute New York, and Williams College.
