Now Playing at Trap Door Theatre

Minna

by Howard Barker
Directed by Nicole Wiesner

January 2, 2010 - February 13, 2010
Runs: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8 pm
With a special performance on Sunday, January 3 at 7PM. 
$20 (2 for 1 on Thursdays)
Purchase Tickets Online

Cast: Kevin Cox, Gary Damico, Geraldine Dulex, John Gray, David A Holcombe, John Kahara, Amber Lageman, Pamela Maurer, Kinga Modjeska, Sadie Rogers, Derek Ryan, and Carl Wisniewski

Set in a mythical world that swings between the 18th Century and the 1950's, Minna is Howard Barker's ferocious view of war and sexual politics.  Minna Von Barnhelm is the light and airy heroine of Lessing's Enlightenment-era comedy, but in Barker's nightmarish world, her single minded pursuit of atrocity compels her to commit atrocity herself. 

"A hallucinatory parade of images on the theme that human beings are rational, intelligent creatures prone to irrational, brutish behavior. Barker's MINNA is violent, grotesque, wantonly sexual, and absurd... and in the hands of first-time director Nicole Wiesner, it's also thought-provoking, visceral, and darkly funny. The ensemble's passionate but precise performances are supported by imaginative set, costume, and sound design that immerse actors and audience alike in a vivid dream world."
-Albert Williams, Chicago Reader

"Nicole Wiesner’s laudably intense and physically thorough rendition… is staged with a great deal of imagination"
-Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

"Dark...kinky...a richly evocative landscape of fear."
-Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

"Wiesner creates bracing stage pictures in this stylish production,"
-Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago

"Never at a loss for parameter stretching and boundary challenging material, Trap Door Theatre presents a captivating production of Minna. It'd is just the kind of pot that Trap Door stirs with beguiling results and director Nicole Wiesner brilliantly creates this nightmarish reality with both visual lyricism and explosive whimsy in this haunted house of catastrophic madness. A compelling spectacle of dramatic lunacy."
- Venus Zarris, Chicago Stage Review

"a jaw-droppingly complex piece of theater…bewilders and amazes on so many levels… a bucking bronco of a play that tries hard to shake the audience. Come prepared for the absurd, and hold on tight. It’s well worth it."
- Keith Ecker, Chicago Theater Blog

"If the actors in this Trap Door production dared to let us in on the joke for an instant, Barker's tantrum would collapse like a circus tent in wet snow. Fortunately, director Nicole Wiesner and her athletic cast have had years of expertise at this brand of roll-on-the-floor-and-stick-out-your-tongue social analysis, diving feet-first into each isolated moment…a prodigious spectacle supplied by the ensemble of physical and verbally agile players."
- Mary Shen Barnidge, Windy City Times

"Under the innovative direction by Nicole Wiesner, Minna evolves as a weirdly enticing theatrical experience. The cast, especially Geraldine Dulex (Minna) and Kevin Cox (Tellheim) throw themselves into the weird world of estranged lovers, violence and sexual adventure. But the bravery, intensity and sheer energy carried the day. The staging and powerful performances will impress.. Take a chance on this Theatre of Catastrophe production–it’ll stir you up."
-Tom Williams, Chicago Critic

Assistant Director: Carolyn Hoerdemann Stage Manager: Barry Branford Choreographer: Lyndsay Kane Makeup Designer: Zsófia Ötvös Costume Designer: Beata Pilch and Nevena Todorovic Sound Designer: Jonathan Guillen Lighting Designer: Richard Norwood Set Designer: Ewelina Dobiesz Graphic Design/photos: Michal Janicki Trap Door Artistic Director: Beata Pilch

About the Director
Nicole has appeared in these productions at the fabulous Trap Door Theatre: Bondage, The Crazy Locomotive (Chicago and NYC), La Ronde, The Homosexual, Ten Tiny Fingers, Nine Tiny Toes, Baal, Automobile Graveyard, The Shoemakers, Quills,Katzelmacher, The Venetian Twins, People Annihilation or My Liver is Senseless, andThe Fourth Sister as well as the title roles in Nana, The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kantand Alice in Bed. Regionally, she has appeared as Mary in Dublin Carol, directed by Amy Morton(Steppenwolf Theatre); Kelly in Dying CIty, directed by Jason Loewith (Next Theatre);  Mary 2 in Passion Play, directed by Mark WIng-Davy (Goodman Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre); Neasa in Shining City, directed by Bob Falls (Goodman Theatre, Huntington Theatre); Madame Chatelet in Great Men of Science, directed by Tracy Letts (Lookingglass Theatre) and Panope in Phedre, directed by JoAnne Akalaitis. She can also be seen in Catherine Sullivan's films Ice Floes of Franz Josef Land and The Chittendens (Tate Modern), and in her theatre pieces in Chicago, NYC, Lyon (L'Opera de Lyon) and Dijon.  Next up, she will reprise her role in Passion Play off-Broadway at Epic Theatre. 

Trap Door Recently Performed in Virginia and New York!

Horses at the Window

Trap Door Theatre's inventive production of Matei Visniec's Horses at the Window in collaboration with critically acclaimed Romanian director, Radu-Alexandru Nica, will perform as part of the Tenth National Symposium of Theatre in Academe at Washington and Lee University in Lexington Virginia.  A poetic parody of war's long-reaching effects on the home-front, Horses at the Window reflects the central theme of this year's symposium, "Eros and Thanatos; Sexuality, War and Violence."

The work will be observed and discussed by various international academic panelists and students.  The event will take place November 11-15, 2009 at the Washington and Lee University.  The joint event proposes to gather theater scholars, teachers, and practitioners as well as theater activists in an open exchange of ideas and artistic expressions relevant to the main themes.  These joint events also aim to create international collaborations through theater, innovative and life affirming artistic products, and exchanges in a world of crisis and violence.