Theater News

Works by McDonagh, Pinter, Sheik Will Be Featured in Atlantic’s 2005-2006 Season

Martin McDonagh
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)
Martin McDonagh
(Photo © Joseph Marzullo)

The Atlantic Theater Company’s 2005-2006 season will feature the American premieres of works by British playwrights Harold Pinter and Martin McDonagh, plus the troupe’s first-ever foray into the world of musical theater.

The 20-year-old company, co-founded by David Mamet, will begin the season on August 31 with the New York premiere of Rolin Jones’s comedy The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, directed by Jackson Gay. The play is about an agoraphobic teenager who creates a flying robot to find her birth mother in China. (A separate production is currently on view at Washington D.C.’s Studio Theater.)

On November 16, the Atlantic will present a double-bill of Pinter’s first play, The Room, paired with his latest work, Celebration, directed by artistic director Neil Pepe. Beginning performances on February 8, 2006 will be the American premiere production of McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore, his Olivier Award-winning black comedy about a cat-loving terrorist, directed by Wilson Milam. McDonagh is currently represented on Broadway by The Pillowman.

The ATC season will conclude with the world premiere musical Spring Awakening, written by pop songwriter Duncan Sheik and playwright Steven Sater, and directed by Michael Mayer. The musical is adapted from Frank Wedekind’s well known play about the sexual coming-of-age of a group of teenagers; it was once scheduled to be produced by the Roundabout Theater Company and was given a concert presentation earlier this year as part of Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series. Performances will begin on May 10, 2006.

For more information, visit www.atlantictheater.org