Curt Columbus, Artistic Director Michael Gennaro, Executive Director 201 Washington Street Providence Rhode Island 02903 www.trinityrep.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 1, 2014, 2014 CONTACT: Myah Shein, Public Relations & Advertising Manager, (401) 521-1100 ext. 226 mshein@trinityrep.com
SAM SHEPARD’S A LIE OF THE MIND CONCLUDES TRINITY REP’S LANDMARK 50th SEASON Savage and compelling ensemble drama takes the stage May 29-June 29 PROVIDENCE, RI: Trinity Rep brings its 50th anniversary season to a close with Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind, directed by Brian Mertes in Trinity Rep’s Dowling Theater from May 29-June 29, 2014, considered by many to be a modern masterpiece of American familial dysfunction. Brimming with enormous vitality and humor the play asks us to look deeper into the human heart and the destructive power of love. Two mid-western families are joined together by marriage and torn apart by a lifechanging incident. “Sam Shepard is surely the only dramatist alive who could tell a story as sad and frightening as this one and make such a funny play of it without ever skimping on its emotional depth," The New Yorker asserts. Tickets are on sale now at www.trinityrep.com, by calling (401) 351-4242, or at the theater’s box office at 201 Washington St., Downtown Providence.
Hailed by The New York Times as the playwright’s “richest and most penetrating play…” A Lie of the Mind showcases the craftsmanship of Sam Shepard’s storytelling at his most poetic, most poignant and most striking. Husband and wife, Jake and Beth, return to their respective families after a devastatingly violent event. Winner of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Drama Desk Award.
“It is only appropriate that we end our 50th celebration with Mr. Shepard, the perfect bookend to our first author of the season, John Steinbeck. As in Steinbeck’s writing, one of the hallmarks of Shepard’s cannon is his visceral, insightful, and brutally funny dissection of Americana,” states artistic director Curt Columbus.
When describing what draws him to A Lie of the Mind, director Brian Mertes articulates, “It’s a great story. It’s two families that collide against each other and you see how they got to where they are. Those kinds of traumas, they scar people for life, every family has its scars and traumas.” He continues, “I think the play is funny, like really funny- darkly funny- but it’s really funny. I think it’s scary, shocking, the language is euphoric. It’ll be a roller coaster ride. "
A Lie of the Mind features a volatile combination of powerhouse Trinity Rep resident acting company members Timothy Crowe, Janice Duclos, Rebecca Gibel, Anne Scurria and Charlie Thurston, alongside up and coming Brown/Trinity Rep MFA students Britt Faulkner (’15), Billy Finn (’15) and Ben Grills (’14)