I have been working with the Obie Award winning Potomac Theater Project on there new production of, The Castle by Howard Barker. Below are some pictures, reviews and an album of the music and design.
The politically minded PTP/NYC returns for its 27th season with the premiere of a nastily funny play about the crusades, by the scabrous British auteur Howard Barker. The formidable Jan Maxwell leads a cast that also includes Jennifer Van Dyck and Quentin Maré; Richard Romagnoli directs.
“there’s no denying that in a well-executed performance like this one, a Barker play bursts with the giddy vigor of ideas in conflict and words gone wild. (The 27-year-old Potomac Theater Project has made a specialty of Barker.) Imagine a melding of Bertolt Brecht’s political theater of alienation, Tom Stoppard’s verbal pyrotechnics, the end-of-days debates of Shaw’s “Heartbreak House” and Monty Python’s rampant silliness, and you’ll begin to have a sense of the tone of “The Castle.” ”
“Sound, a major factor in the wallop-packed narrative, is explosive, mechanical, and the cry of ravaged nature. We know what we’re supposed to be hearing, but it’s never clear from what century the noise emanates. A most effective manipulation, always surprising, never less than jarring and evocative. (Sound Design: Cormac Bluestone).”
“...Sound designer Cormac Bluestone immerses the audience in such believable ambient percussive sounds of building and industry that, were it not for the Atlantic’s being four stories below ground, one would be certain of interference from street noise.”
The Castle
by Howard Barker
directed by Richard Romagnoli
sets by Jon Craine
costumes by Jule Emerson
lighting by Hallie Zieselman
sound by Cormac Bluestone
production managerMs. Zieselman
production stage managers, Eric Marlin
Presented by PTP/NYC (Potomac Theater Project)
At the Atlantic Stage 2, 330 West 16th Street, NY, NY
Steven Dykes (Batter), Quentin Maré (Krak), David Barlow (Stucley), Christina Fox (Cant), Jennifer Van Dyck (Ann), Jan Maxwell (Skinner), Robert Zukerman (Hush/Holiday/Pool), Brent Langdon (Nailer), Stephen Mrowiec (Brian) and Aubrey Dube (Sponge).
