Gatz, Plus Works by Kushner, Kron, Groff & Guirgis, on Tap at the Public

An epic adaptation of The Great Gatsby, as well as new works by playwrights Tony Kushner, Lisa Kron, Rinne Groff and Stephen Adly Guirgis, will be part of the Public Theater’s 2010-2011 season.

The season will begin with The Elevator Repair Service’s Gatz, running September 26-October 31. Gatz is described as a two-part, six-and-a-half-hour theatrical event, taking 13 actors (including Scott Shepherd) and the entire audience through every word of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby. A small business employee finds a copy of the book in the clutter of his desk, starts to read it out loud, and doesn’t stop. At first his co-workers hardly notice. But after a series of strange coincidences, it’s no longer clear whether he’s reading the book or the book is transforming him.

Gatz received an acclaimed production at the American Repertory Theatre in Boston in February 2010. The play will be presented as a marathon theatrical event, with two intermissions and a dinner break, four times a week.

Next up will be Lisa Kron’s In the Wake, running October 19-November 21. Directed by Well collaborator Leigh Silverman, the show follows lovers Ellen and Danny and traverses the switchback turns of the struggle to comprehend our current culture and its politics, while trying to maintain steady bonds among lovers, family and friends. The play will receive its world premiere at the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles on March 28.

Next, the Tricycle Theatre Company’s acclaimed production of The Great Game: Afghanistan, written by Richard Bean, Lee Blessing, David Edgar, David Greig, Amit Gupta, Ron Hutchinson, Stephen Jeffreys, Abi Morgan, Ben Ockrent, Simon Stephens, Colin Teevan, and Joy Wilkinson, plays the NYU Skirball Center November 30-December 19. Nominated for an Olivier Award, the acclaimed political and theatrical event, directed by Nicholas Kent and Indhu Rubasingham, explores Afghanistan’s culture and history over three separate evenings. The show focuses on the culture and history of Afghanistan since Western involvement came into play in 1842 and continued to the present day.

The production is broken into three parts: Part 1: Invasions & Independence – 1842-1930, which starts with the first Anglo-Afghan War of 1842 and moves to Afghan independence in the 1920s; Part 2: Communism, The Mujahideen & The Taliban – 1979-1996, which continues the story from the Russian invasion through to US/CIA arming of the Mujahideen to the coming of the Taliban; and Part 3: Enduring Freedom – 1996-2010, which starts with the events of 7/11 in Northern Afghanistan, through to the overthrow of Taliban, the aid agencies working in the country and the current war against the insurgents. Trilogy days of all three plays will be held on weekends.

The winter season continues with Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis helming Rinne Groff’s world premiere production of Compulsion, which plays February 1-March 6, 2011. Eustis directed Groff’s The Ruby Sunrise at the Public in 2005. In Compulsion, it is 1951 and Sid Silver is on a mission to be the guardian of one of the most moving and provocative accounts of the 20th century. Deeply moved by Anne Frank's diary, he is driven to bring her story to the American masses by promoting the book's publication and adapting the diary into a work of theater.

In March, Pulitzer Prize winner Tony Kushner returns to the Public Theater with his newest play, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key To the Scriptures, as directed by Michael Greif. The New York premiere, featuring Michael Esper and Stephen Spinella, runs March 22-June 12, 2011. The play centers on Gus Marcantonio, a retired longshoreman and card-carrying member of the CPUSA (the American Communist Party), who summons his children to the family’s Brooklyn brownstone in 2007 for a series of shocking announcements. As Gus’ kids attempt to address a profound crisis in their difficult father’s difficult life, their own spectacularly messy problems (and spectacularly messed-up lovers, spouses and exes) follow them home.

The season closes with a co-production with LAByrinth Theater Company of the world premiere of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ The Motherf**cker With the Hat, with dates to be announced. In the new comedy, we discover Jackie and Veronica have been in love since the eighth grade. Now Jackie is on parole and living clean and sober under the guidance of his sponsor, Ralph D, while still living and loving with his volatile soul mate Veronica, who is fiercely loving but far from sober. Still, their love is pure. And true. Nothing can come between them, except a hat.

Casting and additional details for each production will be announced in the coming months.