A challenging twin bill
By Henry Vermillion

Playreaders Theater
The Room and The Curve
Wed–Thu, Sep 2–3, 7:30pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
20 pesos

A challenging pair of one-act mysteries is on tap for the next Playreaders evening, when talented actors present The Room by Harold Pinter and The Curve by famed German playwright Tankred Dorst.

Pinter, a Nobel Laureate, has often been called the most important English-language playwright of the twentieth century. The Room, his first produced and published play, has all the themes of his later work—already perfectly “Pinteresque—and hasn’t become dated as have other English plays of the fifties (such as Look Back in Anger). 

A middle-aged couple’s tranquility is shaken and finally destroyed by the visit to their room by, yes, a mysterious stranger. By comic, dramatic and tragic turns, The Room is buoyed by Pinter’s mastery of everyday language. As is usual with Pinter, in the end the audience must do the work to resolve, if they can, the questions raised.

Though not as well known to English-speaking audiences as Pinter, Tankred Dorst is one of the dramatic heirs of Bertold Brecht. He has written revisionist play cycles on the Arthurian legends and has directed productions of Wagner (with a modernist spin) at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany.

The Curve is a mordant story of two mountain-dwelling brothers whose liberal proclamations are belied by their actual behavior.

The all-star cast includes Reesha Browning, Murray Kamelhar, Stan Gray, Bill Pearlman, David Cross and newcomer Ricky Arce. Henry Vermillion directs.

At Playreaders performances, the doors open at 7pm and the curtain is at 7:30pm, or sooner if the house is full. 

Playreaders was perhaps the first organized English-language drama group in San Miguel. It began in 1977, and has to date produced over 650 performances.