Fringe News
Fringe News
Toronto (SummerWorks): Alice Tuan’s play Ajax (por nobody) receives its first full-scale production by twenty-three year old Zack Russell in his directorial debut, at the 2012 SummerWorks, the largest juried theatre Festival in Canada. Previously, Ajax (por nobody), had a year run at New York’s Flea Theater and traveled to the Melbourne Fringe Festival in September 2001. It is also archived in the Billy Rose Collection of the New York Public Library at the Lincoln Center. The play has been called “unstageable” (by playwright Jeffrey M. Jones in his forward to the play) due to its explicit nature. For more information and to purchase tickets visit summerworks.ca.
The play centres on four people who get together for a booze and drug-fuelled evening of sex, but the sexual spree unexpectedly rages out control. Part comedy, part biting social commentary, Ajax (por nobody) is an explicit look at sex and violence in modern culture. The title, Ajax, refers to both the Greek tragedy and the household cleaner. The cast features David Christo (Alexander), Ingrid Rae Doucet (Alma), Vivien Endicott-Douglas (Annette) in her first adult role, and Philip Stonhouse (Jesse)
“I found the script when I was a resident director at The Flea in New York,” said director Zack Russell. “I found it in a pile of scripts, and spent some time thinking about how desperately I wanted to stage the play, even though the thought terrified me. Eventually, I got the courage to call Alice to ask her permission. The fact that she has entrusted me with her work is something I take very seriously.”
“Zack has the vision and is daring enough to be the first director to do a full-scale production of Ajax,” said writer Alice Tuan. “As an emerging director, there is something fresh and honest about his approach. I am very excited to see the end result.”
Performance Dates and Times
Thursday, August 9 at 9:30 pm
Sunday, August 12 at 2:00 pm
Tuesday, August 14 at 4:00 pm
Wednesday, August 15 at 7:00 pm
Saturday, August 18 at 2:00 pm
Sunday, August 19 at 9:30 pm.
All performances take place at The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen Street West.
ABOUT ZACK RUSSELL
Zack Russell is a playwright and director from Toronto. In August 2008 he created his first original work: The Last First Nations Museum for the SummerWorks Performance Gallery at the Gladstone Hotel. This piece later became The Girl Who Married A Ghost, which played at the InterAccess Gallery in 2008. In 2008/2009 Russell wrote and directed Parole, Parole, premiering at the 2009 Rhubarb Festival. In 2010, Russell began a one-year directing and playwriting residency at The Flea Theater in New York. At the Flea, Russell had the opportunity to direct a workshop of Anne Carson’s new piece Antigonick. The residency culminated in a full-scale production of Just Cause, written and directed by Russell. The play premiered as part of the Flea’s New Play Series in May 2011. Since moving back to Toronto in September, Russell has been the recipient of a Theatre Creator’s Reserve Grant (Ontario Arts Council) as recommended by The Theatre Centre.
ABOUT ALICE TUAN
Alice Tuan is a playwright and teacher. Her play Ajax (por nobody) premiered at New York’s Flea Theater, played at Austin’s Salvage Vanguard and performed at the Melbourne Fringe (2001). Besides being archived in the Billy Rose Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, Ajax (por nobody) is also anthologized in Play: A Journal of Plays (2004) as well as New Downtown Now (2006). Tuan’s other works include Ikebana (East West Players/Taper, Too), Some Asians (Perishable Theater, UMASS, Amherst), Manilova (New Georges), The Roaring Girle (Foundry), short plays for Atlanta’s Dad’s Garage, and the Virtual Hypertext Theater play Coastline (Serious Play!, Edinburgh Fringe). BATCH: An American Bachelor/ette Party Spectacle, her collaboration with Philadelphia’s New Paradise Laboratories, was commissioned by the Actors Theater of Louisville and premiered at the Humana Festival of New American Plays in 2007. Tuan holds an MFA from Brown University in Creative Writing and has taught at the Los Angeles Theater Center, East West Players, and the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Austin. Performance works include a solo performance in The Secret History of the Lower East Side (En Garde Arts), Sprawl (with Rachel Hauck at the Actor’s Gang) as well as the ‘conference performance’ of APACUNT (Asian Pacific American Contemporary Unilateral Neo Theater) with Kristina Wong (Guthrie, Theater for New City). Tuan has held one-year teaching posts in both Guangzhou and Shanghai, China. In December 2008, she gave a talk at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, entitled ‘The Contradiction of the Chinese American through the play Last of the Suns.’ She was invited to observe the 3rd European-Chinese Cultural Dialogue in October 2010 in Shanghai. Continuing on the international front, she headed up an interdisciplinary, experimental performance/design project with students at Cal Arts and Chung Ang University (of Seoul, S. Korea), called Lear/Layer in January 2011. She has a commission from Yale Repertory Theater/Center for New Theater and is currently the Head of Writing for Performance at Cal Arts.
SummerWorks, August 9-19
SummerWorks Box Office Information: On-line sales http://summerworks.ca.
By phone: 416-915-6747; Ticket cost: $15.00
2012-07-12
Ajax (por nobody)