Theater News

Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play Will Premiere at Arena Stage

Sarah Ruhl
Sarah Ruhl

Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, A Cycle, a three-part work based on The Passion of the Christ, will premiere at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., on September 2 and run through October 16. Molly Smith, the company’s artistic director, will direct the production.

The epic trilogy will be presented in one sitting. The first part is set in Elizabethean England; the second part in Oberammergau, Germany in 1934; and the third part in Spearfish, South Dakota in the late 1970s. Passion Play will feature a cast of 12 playing more than 30 characters: Kelly Brady, Parker Dixon, Robert Dorfman, Leo Erickson, J. Fred Shiffman, Carla Harting, Edward James Hyland, Karl Miller, Polly Noonan, Howard Overshown, Lawrence Redmond, and Felix Solis. The design team consists of Scott Bradley (sets), Linda Cho (costumes), Joel Moritz (lighting), and Andre Pluess (sound).

Ruhl’s previous works include Melancholy Play, Orlando, and The Clean House, which was short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize and earned her the 2004 Susan Smith Blackburn Award. Ruhl is a member of New Dramatists and the New York-based playwrights collective 13P.

Other shows scheduled for the 2005-2006 season at Arena Stage are Born Yesterday, Cuttin’ Up, Damn Yankees, Awake and Sing, The Rainmaker, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, and On the Verge.