Hell Meets Henry Halfway

Pig Iron Theatre Company presents the return of Hell Meets Henry Halfway, a black comedy about death and tennis.

Philadelphia’s favorite dance-clown-theater ensemble turns a sharp eye toward Eastern Europe — specifically to the writing of Witold Gombrowicz, Polish absurdist and bad-boy of the literary establishment. Gombrowicz’s serial gothic thriller, The Posessed, written under a pseudonym, is a tale of horror that features a haunted castle, a mad prince, and an otherworldly attraction between a tennis player and her coach.

Writer Adriano Shaplin and Pig Iron’s performer-creators come together to explore the dark and absurd corners of the human soul. Shaplin (“destined to leave a lasting imprint on 21st century theatre” – Scotland on Sunday), a fellow veteran of the Edinburgh Fringe, brings a new literary edge to Pig Iron’s highly physical characterizations. The resulting cocktail is a potent mix of florid diatribes and absurd cruelties, dressed in tennis whites.