Lily Rabe to Star in New Group's An Early History of Fire, New Drama By Her Playwright Father, David Rabe

Lily Rabe will star in the New Group’s world premiere production of An Early History of Fire written by her father, David Rabe. The play will open in April 2012 at the Acorn Theatre on Theatre Row, directed by Jo Bonney.

An Early History of Fire is set at the tipping point of the early 1960s. In a midwestern town, Danny’s world is defined by friendship and loyalty, but the bigger world is encroaching in the form of Karen, back from college in the east, alluring and unsettling because of what she now knows. Danny can’t escape the grip of his immigrant father, who is mourning a vanished world of lost prestige and clinging to his only son. No further casting has been announced.

David Rabe, the Tony-winning playwright of works such as Streamers, The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel and Sticks and Bones, said in a statement, “A further excitement waits in the chance to collaborate with my daughter, Lily, for the first time. In a reading we did of the play, her embodiment of Karen brought clarity and heart to a difficult, complex person.” The New Group previously presented an acclaimed revival of Rabe’s Hurlyburly.

Lily Rabe, who is Broadway-bound this fall in The Seminar, recently starred in A Doll’s House at Williamstown Theatre Festival. She received a 2011 Best Actress Tony nomination for playing Portia in The Merchant of Venice and has appeared on Broadway in The American Plan and Steel Magnolias. Off-Broadway credits include Crimes of the Heart and Colder Than Here.