Fireface
Opening Night: August 26, 2015
Closing: September 5, 2015
Theater: The Brick
Two pubescent siblings, Kurt and Olga, navigate the inherent violence and unintentional betrayal of growing up — in all its cruelty, humiliation, and exhilaration within a claustrophobic home. Incest and arson binds Kurt and Olga and destruction results. Their withdrawn parents recognize the damage too late which leads to the ultimate and irreparable climax. Fireface is a frenetic portrayal of the most tempestuous time of a child’s development realized through 100 cinematic scenes. Having been translated into 19 languages with productions all over the world, this marks the New York premiere of the award-winning German play.
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August 28, 2015
There are rules about shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater. But it’s almost unbearably tempting to yell it during Third Space’s production of “Fireface,” particularly when a Zippo-wielding sociopath begins splashing what is ostensibly gasoline across the narrow stage floor of the Brick, near enough to spray your sandals. This 1998 play by the German writer Marius von Mayenburg belongs to a deliberately provocative genre that the Germans call “blood and sperm” theater, and that the English describe as “in yer face” theater. Both sobriquets apply here. An explosion of the family romance, “Fireface” observes the incestuous relationship and increasing pyromania of the adolescent siblings Kurt and Olga. Olga (Rachel Keller) is a lusty teenager with a streak of perversity. Kurt (Tim Creavin), who has a nasty habit of setting fire to dead birds, is rather more troubled. Each encourages antisocial behavior in the other until Olga’s attentions to a motorcycle-riding suitor named Paul (Steven Robertson) thrust Kurt toward even darker deeds. And poor old Mom and Dad (Danielle Delgado and Paul Albe) are oblivious throughout. Until they aren’t.
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