Brecht, Strindberg, and More Featured in Classic Stage Company's 2018-19 Season

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of artistic director John Doyle, has announced the lineup of productions for its 2018-19 season.

The season will open with Bertolt Brecht's The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, translated by George Tabori and directed by John Doyle. Written in 1941, the story is described as follows: "In 1930s Chicago, mobster Arturo Ui will stop at nothing to control the cauliflower trade. Terror and bloodshed follow. Can anyone stop him?"

Next will be August Strindberg's Miss Julie and The Dance of Death in repertory. The story of Miss Julie is as follows: "On a hot summer evening, Miss Julie, the lonely, imperious daughter of an aristocrat, falls for her father's charismatic footman. The scandal that ensues spirals out of control and results in an ending that stunned theater-goers when it premiered in 1880. Strindberg's naturalist tragedy about sexuality, class and expectations is a revolutionary piece of modern drama widely considered one of his masterpieces."

The Dance of Death is described as follows: "Retired military man Edgar and his wife Alice have given up on any semblance of civility toward each other on the threshold of their 25th wedding anniversary. Due to their isolation, however, they are as codependent as they are hateful. Seething with cruelty, and punctuated by absurdity and humor, Strindberg's electrifying play was ages ahead of its time in its bleak examination of marriage and the social institutions governing it."

Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock will then come to CSC in late March. "In Steeltown, USA, laborer Larry Foreman struggles to unionize fellow steel workers against mounting attacks from a greedy industrialist, who uses his power to influence nearly everyone else in town. Marc Blitzstein's folk opera, created through the Federal Theater Project, was famously shut down on the eve of opening night by federal authorities fearing its pro-labor stance."

Finally, CSC, in partnership with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, will present 39 readings from the Play on! Shakespeare translation project. OSF commissioned 36 playwrights to translate Shakespeare's canon into contemporary modern English to celebrate the enduring impact of the Bard's work.