Preview: staged reading by New Muses Theatre Company
Published in the Weekly Volcano, Aug. 6, 2015
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| Katelyn Hoffman and Nick Spencer in New Muses’ recent production of Miss Julie. Photo by Niclas Olson. |
From
the fringe theater company that brought you the provocative Miss Julie and staged readings of David
Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago
and Neil Labute's Reasons to be Pretty
comes 9 Circles by Bill Cain, another
one-night-only staged reading performed at Tacoma Little Theatre on Aug. 16.
A psychological thriller based on actual
events, 9 Circles tells the story of
an American soldier on trial for his life. The young soldier—honorably
discharged but then accused of an unspeakable war crime in Iraq—is forced to
navigate a labyrinth of commanding officers, public defenders, lawyers,
preachers and military psychiatrists. The actual case upon which it is based
that of former 101st Airborne Division Pfc. Steven Dale Green, convicted in a
federal court in 2009 of raping and killing an Iraqi 14-year-old girl and
murdering her family.
 |
Staged reading of On the Verge by Eric Overmeyer (August
2014 at TLT)
From L to R: Kaylie Rainer, Katelyn
Hoffman and Brittany Griffins.
Photo by Bethany Bevier
|
As described by the company, this play is “shocking,
mesmerizing and bitingly funny” and “a tour de force journey to a shattering
conclusion in which the infinite size and tremendous power of a young man's
soul is revealed.”
The playwright, who is a Jesuit priest, based
the structure of his play on the nine circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno.
Denver
Post reviewer wrote: "9 Circles is
a brilliant play: dark, profane, provocative, profoundly funny in spots, and
disturbing. (It also requires an audience advisory because of the brief full
male nudity that is neither titillating nor camouflaged.) It's demanding. It
asks the audience not only to think and interpret, but to hang on every word…”
9
Circles is directed by and stars New Muses Theater Company founder Niclas Olson
as Daniel Reeves, Kait Mahoney as various women and an actor yet to be cast at
press time for all the men’s roles.
Olson
says: “9 Circles may be the best
script I’ve read in the past couple years. It grabbed me from the first
synopsis I read, and after finally ordering a copy I became a little obsessed.
But unfortunately I couldn’t find a spot for it in our mainstage season. But
that’s why this series exists, to tackle the shows we just can’t fit in
anywhere else, but need to be seen. I love that Bill Cain in writing this
has simplified the war in Iraq into a single soldier’s story. It isn’t over-the-top
political, it’s just about one young guy who came home from Iraq and now has to
deal with the things he did. And while Cain hints at the larger things going on
around him, ultimately it’s a single soldier’s journey and in that way it’s a
very timeless, yet timely, story.
Olson
says the company
is “dedicated to producing intelligent, thought-provoking, and engaging theatre
for a contemporary audience.”
9 Circles, 7 p.m., Aug. 16, pay what
you can, Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N “I” St., Tacoma, www.NewMuses.com.
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