SEASON AT A GLANCE
Famished
Gem of the Ocean
October 8th—30th
By August Wilson, directed by Brian Weaver
As newly freed slaves journey northward, many find themselves on the doorstep of 1839 Wylie, the home of Aunt Ester, a 285-year-old former slave and renowned cleanser of souls. Among those seeking redemption is Citizen Barlow, burdened by an unconfessed crime that has thrust Pittsburgh's local steel mill into riots. To release Citizen, Aunt Ester launches him on a journey aboard the legendary slave ship, Gem of the Ocean, to the City of Bones, where Citizen is plunged into his ancestors' suffering and the weight of his wrongs.
With August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, Portland Playhouse returns to 1839 Wylie, the home slated for destruction in 1990s-era Radio Golf. Mythic in its proportions, Gem of the Ocean travels to 1904, when slavery was a living memory and African Americans were searching for a new life within the uncertain meaning of freedom.
Angels in America: Millenium Approaches
December 8th—31st (at the World Trade Center)
By Tony Kushner, directed by Brian Weaver
Harrowing, uproarious, and magical, Angels in America is a fiercely theatrical modern morality play and a landmark of the American stage.
Against a landscape of greed, sexual politics, and the cries of a sweeping AIDS epidemic, a lost America teeters on the tipping point of an unknown future. This story of love, power, and identity follows characters as diverse as a Mormon housewife, an ex-drag queen, and the fiery attorney Roy Cohn. It's 1985, and an Angel with steel wings is hurtling toward Earth/a dying man/descending: Angels In America: Millennium Approaches.
Famished
January 19th—February 12th
by Anthony Neilson
Sometimes I crave even though I'm not hungry.
Equal parts drama, documentary, social experiment, and installation, Eugenia Woods' new play Famished reveals a view of the relationships we develop with and around food and the often convoluted ways we seek to satisfy our essential hunger. Derived from dozens of interviews and performance-based interaction with Portland audiences, FAMISHED reveals the rules, rituals, traditions and sheer pleasures of nourishing ourselves and others.
The Brother / Sister Plays
March 29th-May 13th
by Tarell Alvin McCraney, director TBA
A trilogy of modern–day stories of kinship, love, heartache and coming of age from Tarell Alvin McCraney, the winner of the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award. The Brother/Sister Plays delve into the world of a Louisiana Bayou housing project, a landscape of hardship and dreams. Influenced by Yoruban mythology, modern dance, and autobiography, and populated with stories of sacrifice, heartache, and laughter, this award-winning trilogy has been hailed as "the greatest piece of writing by an American playwright under 30" (Chicago Tribune).