The Fool and the Red Queen May 18, 2012

It’s a protest. It’s a love story. Padua Playwrights heats up Hollywood with the world premiere of the latest comic meditation from legendary poet-playwright Murray Mednick. In his newest work, Mednick experiments with archetypes in a darkly funny exploration of human nature and the processes of theater. Gary, a down-on-his-luck actor, finds himself at a nightmarish audition where we, the audience, discover the magical ability of theater to create new realities. Segueing directly into a darkly funny and “improvised” play-within-a-play—a love story in the tradition of Edward Albee’s Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Wallace Shawn’s Marie and Bruce, and Mednick’s own Joe and Betty—The Fool and The Red Queen, like all the playwright’s work, is driven by poetic impulse rather than by linear story-telling. “As Murray Mednick experiments with language… he is emblematic of a Los Angeles dramatic tradition in much the same way that Clifford Odets is identifiable with Gotham or David Mamet with Chicago” –Variety. May 19 – June 24; Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90038; $25; 323-960-7740; www.plays411.com/RedQueen