Jennifer Underwood
SEASON 27 | may 2016
The New Electric Ballroom
may 2015
By Enda Walsh
Directed by Kevin Yancey
Presented by Renaissance Austin Theatre
in association with The VORTEX
“an astonishing achievement, both for the Irishman’s text and Renaissance Austin’s staging of it. This is theatre deep and dark and harrowing, art that stands with the best of Beckett, and it’s right here in Austin for two weekends more.”
Breda smears her lipstick, Clara waits for tea and cake, and Ada cans fish in the local cannery. Three sisters trapped in time endlessly relive their past in a crumbling Irish seaside town. Their raison d’être is to rehearse and tell the story of their glory days. But just how glorious were those days? What happened that made the sisters imprison themselves in their own house? One day the local fishmonger steps into the house for the very first time. That was the day everything changed. Was the fishmonger really a fishmonger at all? Maybe he was Jesus in disguise. Then again, maybe he wasn’t.
CAST
Jennifer Underwood, Karen Jambon, Lorella Loftus, and Andy Brown.
PRODUCTION TEAM
Directed by Kevin Yancey. Scenic Design by Ann Marie Gordon. Lighting Design by Patrick Anthony. Costume Design by Elisha Alderman. Sound Design by David DeMaris. Stage Management by Suzanne Smith. Production Support by Diane Christopherson.
About Edna Walsh
Enda Walsh is a prolific and multi-talented Irish playwright and screenwriter renowned for his dark, lyrical voice. His work is always daring, imaginative, openhearted and fierce. Walsh’s book for the musical Once won a Tony Award in 2012. His work on the short film Hunger earned him Best First Film at the Cannes Film Festival and The Discovery Award at the Toronto Film Festival. His plays The Walworth Farce, Penelope, Bedbound, and The New Electric Ballroom have won Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Awards. The New Electric Ballroom also won an Obie in 2010, and an Irish Times Best New Play Theatre Award in 2008. The play has been produced throughout the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States. This is its first time in Texas.
Funded and supported in part by VORTEX Repertory Company and by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.