<\/p>\n
Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance presents\u00a0 Caryl Churchill\u2019s play<\/p>\n
March 28-30, as part of Mnemonic Theatre Festival<\/p>\n
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Allentown, Pa. (March 22, 2021) \u2014 Think of \u201cThe Hunger Games,\u201d set in the world of \u201cBlack Mirror\u201d \u2014 with perhaps the most ominous hat-making operation ever devised for theater.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what you can expect from \u201cFar Away,\u201d Caryl Churchill\u2019s haunting short play, opening (virtually) March 28 at Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe script is dark and unpredictable,\u201d says Muhlenberg senior Marlee Schulman, who directs the play. \u201cIt feels right for the time that we\u2019re in. We’ve had to read between the lines and we have our own interpretations. I think the audience will as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
This hour-long dystopian drama manifests a world where violence is imminent and nothing can be trusted, created by the Obie Award-winning playwright of \u201cTop Girls\u201d and \u201cCloud Nine.\u201d A young woman must grow up quickly after witnessing a horrifying event in her childhood. In the wake of this trauma, she enters a career as a hat-maker, in which she becomes enmeshed in bizarre, elaborate rituals that have evolved around violent government repression.<\/p>\n
Provocative and disturbing, \u201cFar Away\u201d offers an incisive exploration of fear and tyranny in a dystopian \u2014 but uncomfortably familiar \u2014 world at war.<\/p>\n
The second instalment in Muhlenberg\u2019s semester-long Mnemonic Theatre Festival, \u201cFar Away\u201d runs March 28-30, and will be presented in a virtual performance, combining elements of film and live theatre. Attendance is free. Patrons can request tickets at muhlenberg.edu\/seeashow<\/a>.<\/p>\n Sophomore Nicola Ferro plays Joan, the young hat-maker. She says she has enjoyed working through the ambiguities of the script.<\/p>\n \u201cMy character could have ten different backstories, and every rehearsal we\u2019re looking to see which one we like the best,\u201d Ferro says. \u201cIt\u2019s been really invigorating to do such deep text work as an actor.\u201d<\/p>\n Schulman says she has found her interest in film and television influential in directing the production, combining theatrical storytelling conventions with elements of mixed media.<\/p>\n \u201cThis production is very much a piece of theatre, in the way that we have approached the script and the structure of the play,\u201d she says. \u201cBut there are filmic elements to it too, which virtual production has made possible. The digital stage has allowed us to get closer to the thought processes of the characters, which are crucial to this story.\u201d<\/p>\n Then of course, there are the hats.<\/p>\n After a disturbing childhood episode, the audience next meets Joan hard at work in a hat factory, making elaborate and fanciful hats for some unknown purpose, which grows increasingly ominous as play progresses. Muhlenberg\u2019s costume shop has been hard at work creating a variety of darkly funky headgear, as envisioned by costume designer Maxine Stone, a sophomore at Muhlenberg.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI’ve been thinking of the hats as a distraction from what is going on in the world,\u201d Schulman says. \u201cThey\u2019re so exquisite and such a spectacle that they distract from what is happening to the people who are wearing them.\u201d<\/p>\n The New York Times called the play\u2019s 2002 premiere \u201cravishing, deeply disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt has the picturesque form and gentle rhythms of a fairy tale,\u201d the Times says. \u201cEach carefully chosen detail seems to vibrate with unsettled depths. And each summons anxieties both primal and mercilessly particular to the times in which we live.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFar Away\u201d is the second production in Muhlenberg\u2019s mostly-virtual Mnemonic Theatre Festival at Muhlenberg, running through May. Information on all seven productions in the festival can be found at muhlenberg.edu\/seeashow<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cFar Away\u201d runs Sunday, March 28, at 1 p.m., and Monday and Tuesday, March 29-30, at 7 p.m. Patrons can register to see the show at muhlenberg.edu\/seeashow<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Information Provided By: <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Muhlenberg Theatre & Dance presents\u00a0 Caryl Churchill\u2019s play March 28-30, as part of Mnemonic Theatre Festival Allentown, Pa. (March 22, 2021) \u2014 Think of \u201cThe Hunger Games,\u201d set … Continue reading Dystopian drama \u2018Far Away\u2019 offers disturbing glimpses of a world at war<\/span>
\nScott Snyder
\nMarketing & Development Manager
\nMuhlenberg College Department of Theatre & Dance<\/p>\n
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