Life According to Saki
Opening Night: February 13, 2017
Closing: March 5, 2017
Theater: 4th Street Theatre
A new play inspired by one of Britain’s greatest comic writers, on mischief, love, war, and the meaning of life. Award-winning children’s author Katherine Rundell’s first play, developed with director Jessica Lazar, premiered at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe, where it won the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award 2016. Saki was the pen name of early-twentieth-century satirist Hector Hugh Munro. Somewhere between Oscar Wilde and Roald Dahl, Saki’s creations are witty, absurd, and peculiarly optimistic. 1916. In the trenches of the Somme, a soldier tells stories. That soldier is Saki. His stories tell of misrule and rebellion, thwarted desire, charm and chaos, friendship and jealousy, and, finally, death.
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February 13, 2017
A chipper young troupe out of Britain is pulling sunshine from the dark in Life According to Saki, a bouncy adaptation of the elegantly macabre short stories of its title character. A hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year, this brisk entertainment bears the same relation to its source material as the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins did to the novels that inspired it. That is to say, it’s perfectly enjoyable as a whimsy-splashed showcase for fresh-faced talent. But the distinctive perversity of the author it riffs upon ultimately eludes the talented creators of this hourlong production, which opened on Monday night at the Fourth Street Theater.
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