Symphony of Rats

The Wooster Group

WEST COAST PREMIERE

Past event

Price: $50*
Genre: Theater
Season: Fall 2024
DATE: OCT 18-20, 22-23
TIME: FRI-SUN & TUE-WED, 8:30 PM
SAT-SUN & WED, 3PM
RUNTIME: Approx. 75 minutes, no intermission
COUNTRY: USA
Program: Download Program Notes (PDF)

Join the conversation in the REDCAT LOUNGE

About

A president of the United States is receiving messages by mysterious means, and he doesn’t know whether to trust them. In this new Wooster Group production, directed by Elizabeth LeCompte and Kate Valk, Richard Foreman’s 1988 play is reimagined with a multilayered sound and video score that draws from wide-ranging literary and cinematic sources, including William Blake, D.H. Lawrence, and Charlie Chaplin. Set in a spaceship-museum gallery, this surreal production follows the president as he plunges into a series of encounters with otherworldly beings, among them a giant rat with a special message. Moving between the apocalyptic and the mundane, The Wooster Group considers how technology questions what it means to be human.

Join Frances McDormand, Elizabeth LeCompte and Kate Valk at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, October 20 at 11am for a conversation about Symphony of Rats and The Wooster Group.

Please note: Symphony of Rats contains mature content and loud sounds.

The Wooster Group in full flood … full of laughter and a radiating sense of pleasure.

—

Helen Shaw, The New Yorker

Co-commissioned by piece by piece productions.

The creation and performance of Symphony of Rats is made possible by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; and the National Endowment for the Arts; and support from Antonia Belt and Tom Shapiro.

Major support for The Wooster Group is provided by Rita Ackermann and Hauser & Wirth; the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; The Howard Gilman Foundation; MacMillan Family Foundation; Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; Select Equity Group Foundation; Shubert Foundation; and The Wooster Group’s Director’s Circle: Antonia & David Belt, Paul Cassidy & Vernon Evenson, Christine Larsen & Vincent Dopulos, Alan Mark & Jeffrey Fraenkel, Frances McDormand, Robyn Mewshaw, Catherine Orentreich (Orentreich Family Foundation), Tom Shapiro, and Wendy vanden Heuvel.

about the artists

The Wooster Group

The Wooster Group, led by founding member and director Elizabeth LeCompte, is a pioneer of experimental theater. Established in 1975, the Group has created more than 40 theater and dance works, over 20 media pieces, and one ribbon cutting ceremony. LeCompte-directed theater productions include: Rumstick Road (1977); L.S.D. (… Just the High Points …) (1984); Brace Up! (1991); The Hairy Ape (1996); House/Lights (1999); To You, the Birdie! (Phèdre) (2002); Hamlet (2006); the opera La Didone (2008); Vieux Carré (2009); The Room (2015); The Town Hall Affair (2017); A Pink Chair (In Place of a Fake Antique) (2018); and The Mother (2021). Early Shaker Spirituals (2014), The B-Side: Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons (2017), and Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me (2024) were directed by associate director Kate Valk. The Group’s work has been featured in museum and gallery shows internationally, including three Whitney Biennials and commissions for the 2015 opening of the new Whitney Museum building and the 2006 Dada exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.

Group founding members: Elizabeth LeCompte and Spalding Gray with Ron Vawter, Jim Clayburgh, Willem Dafoe, Kate Valk, and Peyton Smith.

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Richard Foreman

Richard Foreman is a major American avant-garde playwright who founded the Ontological-Hysteric Theater in 1968. He has written and directed over 50 plays, which toured nationally and internationally. In 1988, he wrote Symphony of Rats and directed The Wooster Group performers Peyton Smith, Kate Valk, Ron Vawter, and Jeff Webster in a production at The Performing Garage. In 2022, LeCompte and Valk asked Foreman if the Group could make a new version of the play. He responded, “You can do whatever you want! I hope it’s completely unrecognizable.”

cast & creative team

Text by Richard Foreman

Directed by Elizabeth LeCompte & Kate Valk

Composed by the Company

Performers: Niall Cunningham*, Jim Fletcher, Ari Fliakos, Andrew Maillet, Tavish Miller, Michaela Murphy, and Guillermo Resto

Production designed by Elizabeth LeCompte

Sound Design & Music by Eric Sluyter

Video designed by Yudam Hyung Seok Jeon

Lighting designed by Jennifer Tipton & Evan Anderson

Costumes designed by Antonia Belt

Additional Sound & Video: Andrew Maillet

Assistant Director & Stage Manager: Michaela Murphy