Thank you Nicky Silver! Pterodactyls Extended 2 weeks!
With Critics Pick by LA City Beat, Entertainment Today.net and Review Plays.com, we thought we would listen and ask for permission to extend the show. Nicky Silver has agreed:) We will be adding two more weeks! Hooray!
Fri, August 3; Sat, August 4
Fri, August 10; Sat, August 11
RSVP Now!
All shows @8pm
We are still at the Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Blvd. (NE corner of Highland)
Please come and check us out.
www.AthenaTheatre.com/ 818-754-1423
Veronique
LA Weekly-Pterodactyls
PTERODACTYLS Nicky Silver’s undeniably clever play might be described as apocalyptic farce, or smarty-pants nihilism, positing the notion that we, like the dinosaurs, are heading toward extinction, thanks to our denial of basic realities. Young Todd (Todd Kubrak) left home five years ago and hasn’t been heard from since. Now he has returned, after a life of determined depravity and risk, to announce that he has AIDS. His sister, Emma (Veronique Ory), who has memory problems, denies that she ever had a brother. His frivolous, alcoholic mother (Gillian Doyle) refuses to acknowledge his illness and retreats into meaningless chatter, despite an incestuous attraction to Todd. Meanwhile, Dad (Christopher Bradley), leches after Emma and cherishes the wildly mistaken illusion that his children adore him. Emma has just become engaged to a waiter named Tommy (Ryan Baylor), but Mom insists that he become their servant and wear a brief French maid’s costume that suggests 1930s pornography. Director Patrick Varon provides a slick and brisk production on Stefan Depner’s elegantly sterile set, and the cast, if not quite brilliant, is accomplished and able. Athena Theatre at THE STELLA ADLER THEATRE, 6773 Hollywood Blvd., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun. 7 p.m.; thru July 29. (818) 754-1423. (Neal Weaver)
Back Stage West-Pterodactyls
July 18, 2007
By Les Spindle
Nicky Silver's off-kilter tragicomedy is about an upper-crust family's dysfunctions of apocalyptic proportions; the script suggests that unless we find ways to adapt in an increasingly complex world, our species could go the way of the dinosaur. To spin his bizarre tale, the playwright has drawn from a cornucopia of sources -- a little Eugène Ionesco here, a touch of Joe Orton there, a flash of Thornton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth, and, most strongly, echoes of Edward Albee's The American Dream. Yet, Silver isn't so much a dramaturgic larcenist as he is a shrewd craftsman who stirs up his pot with a lot of time-proven dramatic devices to create a highly original stew. Director Patrick Varon pulls off a generally fine rendition of this challenging piece.
Each member of this grotesque clan -- despite the Ozzie and Harriet façade -- has loose screws. Patriarch Arthur (Christopher Bradley) is prone to adultery and incest. His wife, Grace (Gillian Doyle), is a lush who worries more about social proprieties than about dealing with her children's personal crises. Daughter Emma (Veronique Ory) suffers from amnesia and panic attacks. Prodigal son Todd (Todd Kubrak) returns after years of separation, confessing that he's a sex addict afflicted with AIDS. The odd man out -- literally -- is Emma's sexually confused fiancé, Tommy (Ryan Baylor), the family servant, who wears a French maid's outfit and lusts after Todd.
Silver's self-absorbed characters talk at -- rather than with -- one another, leading to a lot of non sequiturs, driving home the point of a noncommunicative family. Varon could better modulate these exchanges, as they sometimes fly by too quickly for us to absorb needed information. The playwright's themes become clearer when the zany tone shifts to stark tragedy. The finest work comes from Doyle, whose basket-case matriarch feels like a cross between Katherine Helmond in Soap and Faye Dunaway's Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. Kubrak excels as the loony artist turned amateur archaeologist, as does Ory as the seriocomic sad sack. Baylor is a hoot as the cross-dressing groom-to-be. Those with an appetite for nihilistic farce will enjoy this gleefully acidic satire.
Pterodactyls
Athena Theatre is very proud to announce its upcoming production of Nicky Silver's Pterodactyls.
Thursday, July 12th through Sunday, July 29th (Extended!Aug 3rd, 4th, 10th + 11th)
Thurs-Sat at 8PM; Sun at 7pm
Stella Adler Theatre (map)
6773 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90028.
An absurdist black comedy about the demise of the Duncan family, and by extension, the species.
“…PTERODACTYLS struck me as the flip side of THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH, Thorton Wilder’s antic celebration of mankind’s ability to muddle through.” –The New York Times
“There are times-not all that many, admittedly-when a critic wishes he had never used the word ‘brilliant’ before, so he could offer it fresh minded and glittering to something new. And different…” –The New York Post
“Clever is the word for PTERODACTYLS…clever, sharp, witty-it’s a play that takes aim at the main-streamed, moneyed, conventional American family and buries it under one satiric jibe after another.” –Theater Week
Director: Patrick Varon
Stage Manager: Kevin Jordan
Set Design: Stefan Depner
Lighting Design: Johnny Ryman
Costume Design: Marina Toybina
Sound Design: John Bobek
Publicity: Demand PR
Postcard Design: Jeremy Asher
Casting Director: Stephen Snyder
Starring
Todd Kubrak as Todd Duncan
Veronique Ory as Emma Duncan
Ryan Baylor as Tommy McKorkle
Gillian Doyle* as Grace Duncan
Christopher Bradley* as Arthur Duncan
General Admission $20 presale on-line
Or $25 cash only at the door
Ovation Award Eligible LAStageAlliance.com
Reservations: 818-754-1423
