Re: RAT: Shows Minneapolis

[Wendy Knox <frank@bitstream.net>]

FRANK THEATRE  OPENS ITS TENTH YEAR WITH A NEW STAGING OF FRANZ X.
KROETZ’S FARMYARD

“FARMYARD   is a fascinating, anarchic play that should have its
audiences rethinking their definitions of what theatre is and can be.”  
---Peter Vaughan, StarTribune, May 1989


Frank Theatre opens its tenth year with a new staging of its  1989
premiere production of Franz X. Kroetz’s FARMYARD, to be performed April
30- May 23 at the Minneapolis Theatre Garage, located at the
intersection of Franklin and Lyndale  Avenues in south Minneapolis.
Performances are Thur. through Saturday at 8:00, Sun. at 2:00, with one
Monday performance at 8:00 on May 10. Tickets are $14 and $16, and can
be reserved by calling 724-3760. (On May 7, the theatre will mark its
anniversary with a bona fide birthday party benefit, complete with cake,
champagne, and hats; tickets, including performance, $25.) FARMYARD will
be directed by Frank Theatre Artistic Director Wendy Knox (who directed
the original staging, as well as the recent production of LYSISTRATA at
the Guthrie) and will feature, Phyllis Wright (who received critical
acclaim for her performance of “Beppi” in the original staging) as the
mother, Lisa Belfiori (who has been featured in many Frank productions,
most notably in Migdalia Cruz’ MIRIAM’S FLOWERS, and Twin Cities
veterans Tom Sherohman, and Fred Wagner. 

FARMYARD is an uncompromising portrait of a poor, rural family and their
efforts to handle the unplanned pregnancy of their adolescent teenage
daughter. In this compelling and stark story of a family who lacks
language as a tool of processing experience, the harsh realities of
their day-to-day life are highlighted by Kroetz’ sparse use of
dialogue.  A playwright who was part of the “new wave” of German theatre
in the late ‘70s (which included writers such as Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, Peter Handke, Heiner Muller and Marieluise Fleisser), Kroetz
has been hailed for his stunning use of silence; the dialogue of the
play, heavily sculpted by pauses, is sparse, and draws heavily on
“recycled” words: platitudes, Biblical quotes, aphorisms.  The
characters who people the play--a farmer and his wife, their retarded
adolescent daughter, and a drifter who has found a temporary position as
a farmhand--are the disenfranchised whose greatest struggle is to get
through the day before them. The piece is rich with it’s layering of
language and silence, and a brilliant example of Kroetz’ early work.
Later works by the playwright include THROUGH THE LEAVES, MENSCH MEIER,
and THE NEST.

Frank Theatre first presented FARMYARD as its premiere production a tiny
warehouse space in St. Paul in April 1989. The production was named one
of the “Outstanding Productions of 1989” by The Reader, and received
remarkable acclaim from audience and critics, despite its tough subject
matter; it was hailed as a “compelling realization of Kroetz’s
theatrical method” (Star Tribune) and for the emotional depth brought to
the text by the acting and directing. Drawn to the relationship between
language, power, and silence, Frank is pleased to present a remount of
this early work as an appropriate mark for the theatre’s ten-year
celebration, which will follow up with a production of the Brecht/Weill
work, THE THREEPENNY OPERA in October.

Frank Theatre is a professional theatre company, founded in 1989, which
is committed to producing unique work which stretches the skills of the
artists who create the work while simultaneously challenging the
everyday perceptions of the audience through the exploration of ideas
and issues of social, political and/or cultural concern. Recent
productions include Ruth Mackenzie’s KALEVALA: dream of the salmon
maiden, Anton Chekhov/Kira Obolensky’s THE CHEKHOV PROJECT, Kevin
Kling’s THE EDUCATION OF WALTER KAUFMANN, Caridad Svich’s ALCHEMY OF
DESIRE/DEAD-MAN’S BLUES, and Suzan-Lori Parks' THE AMERICA PLAY.

For further information, please contact Wendy Knox at 612 724-3760.