| Red Bull Theater presents the American premiere of The Tragedy of Hoffman reading with Robert Cuccioli, Carson Elrod, Manoel Felciano, Laila Robins, and more | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 10:09 am EST 01/11/25 | |
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| RED BULL THEATER Continues the New Season of Revelation Readings with The Tragedy of Hoffman, Or Revenge For A Father by Henry Chettle Directed by Nathan Winkelstein Featuring Michael Stewart Allen, Tina Benko, Ro Boddie, Madeline Calais-King, Robert Cuccioli, Carson Elrod, Manoel Felciano, Mister Fitzgerald, Rami Margron, Laila Robins, Lily Santiago, and Socorro Santiago LIVE IN-PERSON ONLY Monday January 27th Symphony Space Leonard Nimoy Thalia RED BULL THEATER (Jesse Berger, Founder and Artistic Director; Martin Giannini, Executive Director) today announced the complete cast for the next offering of Revelation Readings season: The Tragedy of Hoffman, Or Revenge For A Father by Henry Chettle, directed by Nathan Winkelstein. This will premiere Monday January 27th (7:30 PM) at Symphony Space Leonard Nimoy Thalia (2537 Broadway at 95th Street). This reading is produced in association with The Acting Company. For tickets and more information, visit redbulltheater.com/the-tragedy-of-hoffman. Mr. Berger says, "The wonderful scholar Ayanna Thompson introduced us to this extraordinary play, and we are thrilled to share it with audiences, in what I think might be its American Premiere presentation. It's weird, diabolical, theatrical, and very Red Bull. With a fantastic cast, this could be your only chance to ever hear this unique and fascinating Elizabethan tragedy!” The captivating story of a young man seeking to avenge the murder of his father with the help of a diabolical servant. He joins the household of his enemies, enacting convoluted plots of deceit, betrayal, poisoning and violence to pursue his ends. But unchecked vengeance has a way of catching up with you. This is a gripping tale of revenge, and betrayal that sweeps an audience along to a conclusion not to be missed. The cast will feature Michael Stewart Allen (for Red Bull Theater: Margaret, A Tyger's Heart; King Lear - New York Classical Theatre; Moby Dick Rehearsed, The Tempest - The Acting Company; War Horse - National Tour); Tina Benko (for Red Bull Theater: Medea, Don Carlos; Broadway: The Rose Tattoo, The Cherry Orchard, The Crucible, Irena's Vow, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Hedda Gabler, The Real Thing; Off-Broadway: Becky Nurse of Salem, Nantucket Sleigh Ride - Lincoln Center Theater; Julius Caesar - Public Theater; Tales From Red Vienna - Manhattan Theatre Club; The Little Foxes - New York Theatre Workshop); Ro Boddie (RBT: The Capulets and the Montagues (Castelvines y Monteses), The Wonder of Women; Seize the King - The Classical Theatre of Harlem, A Play Is a Poem - Atlantic Theater/Center Theatre Group, Pride Plays – Rattlestick, Socrates - Public Theater); Madeline Calais-King (Red Bull Theater debut); Robert Cuccioli (RBT: The Tempest, Your Own Thing, The White Devil; Broadway: Jekyll & Hyde - Tony Award nomination, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards; Les Miserables; Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark; Off-Broadway: Caesar & Cleopatra, Mrs. Warren's Profession - Gingold Group); Carson Elrod (RBT: The Alchemist; Broadway: Peter and the Starcatcher, Reckless, Noises Off; Off-Broadway: The Tempest, Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well - NYSF); Manoel Felciano (for RBT: The Alchemist, The Changeling; upcoming: The Imaginary Invalid; Broadway: Sweeney Todd — Tony Award nomination, To Kill a Mockingbird, Parade, Dear Evan Hansen, Amélie, Disaster!, Brooklyn The Musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cabaret); Mister Fitzgerald (RBT: Phèdre; Ohio State Murders - Broadway; A Raisin in the Sun - Public Theater; On Sugarland - New York Theatre Workshop); Rami Margron (RBT: upcoming - Kit Marlowe; As You Like It - La Jolla; Hurricane Diane - Old Globe); Laila Robins (RBT: The Dance of Death, Sejanus His Fall; Broadway: Heartbreak House, Frozen - Lucille Lortel nomination, The Real Thing, The Herbal Bed. Off-Broadway: The Apple Family Plays - Drama Desk Award, OBIE Award, Lady From Dubuque - Outer Critics Circle nomination, Richard Seff Award, Mrs. Klein - Jefferson Award and Helen Hayes nomination, Sore Throats - Lortel nomination, Tiny Alice, Merchant of Venice - Calloway Award); Lily Santiago (RBT: Mac Beth; Broadway: Mary Jane - MTC); and Socorro Santiago (RBT: The White Devil, Titus Andronicus; Broadway: The Bacchae; Off-Bway: L'illusion - NYTW). Chettle's one acknowledged play, The Tragedy of Hoffman, or A Revenge for a Father, was printed belatedly in 1631 but probably dates from around 1603. It belongs in a vital, violent, and distinctly interconnected series of plays on the theme of revenge, which drew in writers including Shakespeare, Kyd, Ben Jonson, John Marston, and Thomas Middleton. All these works present personal revenge for a murdered family member as a morally compromised but utterly inexorable duty. ABOUT THE PLAY In The Tragedy of Hoffman, the titular hero seeks revenge for his vice-admiral father, who was betrayed by the state he served, turned pirate, and executed. He finds, shipwrecked, the heir to his enemies, promptly murders him with a burning crown, and assumes his identity at court. Assisted by his servant Lorrique, he is adopted as heir by the Duke, meaning that a mere handful of other murders will secure his place at the head of the state. His gleefully amoral malignity carries the play, but he is ultimately subject to the law not of Prussia, but of the revenge plot itself: his comeuppance awaits. Chettle has clearly read Hamlet and he riffs on it self-consciously - in his subtitle ‘A Revenge for a Father' and in a number of allusions which echo Shakespeare's tragedy. Lucibella's madness and her songs are a version of Ophelia's; there are shared references to Wittenberg and to Niobe; the play is also set in the Northern Baltic close to Norway. Hoffman's relation to Martha is a perverse, disinhibited version of Hamlet's with Gertrude. Hoffman sexualises his ‘new-made mother', announcing ‘ there's another fire burns in this liver: lust and hot desire, which you must quench'. In other ways, too, Hoffman takes Hamlet a step further: the Danish prince is famously prompted by the Yorick's disinterred skull, but Hoffman carries his father's entire skeleton around as a talisman and reminder of his bloody duty. In the first twenty or so minutes of Chettle's play, Hoffman has achieved what it takes Hamlet five full acts to accomplish, and in beginning ‘Hence [be gone], clouds of melancholy', it is as if he turns his back on the stage cliché of the melancholic and hesitant avenger Shakespeare had presented. Hoffman revisits and revitalises the revenge tragedy genre: if this is what Chettle could do, it's a pity so little of his work survives. ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT Henry Chettle is a mysterious figure: even his dates of birth and death are unknown, although he does appear in the historical record as both a writer and printer during the 1590s and the turn of the seventeenth century. In 1598 a contemporary lists him ‘one of the best for comedy amongst us', and the account books of the theatrical impresario Philip Henslowe record Chettle's involvement in almost fifty plays in the repertory. The majority were co-authored (and of these, most have been lost); of the sole-authored plays credited to Chettle by Henslowe, The Tragedy of Hoffman is the only one that was ever printed. He is thus an embodiment of the collaborative, anonymous, performance-rather-than-print-directed theatre of the late Elizabethan period – or to put it another way, the opposite of his most famous contemporary, William Shakespeare. Outside the playhouse, Chettle was associated with popular prose pamphlets and with other opportunistic forms of publishing: apparently cashing in on the celebrity author Robert Greene's notoriety in editing – perhaps writing – a posthumous pamphlet under his name, bringing out pastoral poetry mourning the dead Queen Elizabeth, writing for two rival theatre companies despite being bound to one. One further detail from Henslowe's papers may explain this: Chettle seems to have been constantly impoverished, borrowing money to get out of the Marshalsea debtors' prison, and bail to avoid further arrests. The only personal description of him comes from an account in 1607 when he was a popular arrival to Elysium among other dead Elizabethan writers including Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, George Peele and Thomas Kyd. He is described as ‘sweating and blowing, by reason of his fatnes'. ABOUT THE DIRECTOR Nathan Winkelstein has been with Red Bull Theater for eight years, and Associate Artistic Director for three. He is the Producing Director of the Revelation Reading Series as well as the host of Red Bull Podcasts, the Director of Education and the Casting Associate for Red Bull. Nathan has acted or directed for numerous companies around the country, including The Alley, NYU Grad, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Shakespeare Theater Company, LCT, The Folger, American Shakespeare Center, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, and others. Dubbed 'The Pied Piper of Shakespeare' Nathan provides private acting coaching to select clients and has taught for Red Bull, STC, LCT, TGS and Maggie Flanagan Studio. Nathan received his BA in Theater from the University at Buffalo and his MFA in Classical Acting from the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK. Nathan is a proud member of Actors' Equity and SDC. ABOUT RED BULL THEATER Red Bull Theater, hailed as "a dynamic producer of classic plays” by Ben Brantley in The New York Times, brings rarely seen classic plays to dynamic new life for contemporary audiences, uniting a respect for tradition with a modern sensibility. Named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, Red Bull Theater is New York City's home for dynamic performances of great plays that stand the test of time. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, the company also produces new works that are in conversation with the classics. A home for artists, scholars, and students, Red Bull Theater delights and engages the intellect and imagination of audiences, and strives to make its work accessible, diverse, and welcoming to all. We value and practice inclusiveness, equity, and diversity in all of our activities, and are committed to antiracist action. Red Bull Theater believes in the power of great classic stories and plays of heightened language to deepen our understanding of the human condition, in the special ability of live theater to create unique, collective experiences, and in the timeless capacity of classical theater to illuminate the events of our times. Variety agreed, hailing Red Bull's work as: "Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years.” Since its debut in 2003 with a production of Shakespeare's Pericles starring Daniel Breaker, Red Bull Theater has served adventurous theatergoers with Off-Broadway productions, Revelation Readings, and the annual Short New Play Festival. The company also offers outreach programs including Shakespeare in Schools bringing professional actors and teaching artists into public school classrooms; Bull Sessions, free post-play discussions with top scholars; and Classical Acting Intensives led by veteran theater professionals. During the pandemic, Red Bull created several new and ongoing programs to serve audiences and artists with our mission: Red Bull Podcasts, Online Readings, Seminars, and more. "The most exciting classical theater in New York” as Time Out NY has called it, has produced 24 Off-Broadway productions and over 200 Revelation Readings of rarely seen classics, serving a community of more than 5,000 artists and providing quality artistic programming to an audience of over 65,000. The company's unique programming has received ongoing critical acclaim and has been recognized with Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway, Off-Broadway Alliance, and OBIE nominations and Awards. For more information about any of Red Bull Theater's programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com. |
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