(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass.) – Kickwheel Ensemble Theater will present a reimagined version of their original theater piece, DARK: An End of the World Play with Music and an Exercise Bike, at Mixed Company in Great Barrington from Friday, February 21, to Sunday, March 2, 2014. Set in the aftermath of a cataclysmic event, DARK chronicles one family’s attempt to survive in a small cabin atop a lonely mountain. Stylized physical action, dark comedy and hauntingly beautiful songs unravel a story of desperation, resilience and hope.
Conceived and developed by Kickwheel Ensemble Theater (the creative arm of Bazaar Productions and the Berkshire Fringe) in 2012, DARK, written by Timothy Ryan Olson with original music by Peter Wise, received its world premiere at the 8th annual Berkshire Fringe festival. Inspired by audience feedback and ongoing interest in the project, the company has spent the last several months in the lab workshopping, reimagining and streamlining the piece with an eye towards a US and UK tour in 2016.
Building on the original premiere, this new version of DARK is directed by Adam Sugarman and includes architectural adjustments to the script, a heightened sense of style within the piece, and the addition of a revised sound score, performed live by Peter Wise.
All performances take place at Mixed Company Theater, 37 Rossetter St., Great Barrington.
Performance Schedule: Fri, 2/21 at 7pm (Pick Your Own Price Opening Night) Sat, 2/ 22 at 7pm, Sun 2/23 at 2pm, Fri 2/28 at 7pm, Sat 3/1 at 7pm, Sun 3/2 at 2pm (followed by a post show discussion). Tickets are $20. All proceeds from benefit the 10th Annual Berkshire Fringe festival.
For tickets or more information call: 413.320.4175, e-mail boxoffice@berkshirefringe.org or visit Berkshire Fringe.
Founded in 2007, Kickwheel Ensemble Theater is an assembly of theater-makers, performers and designers based in the Berkshires and New York who create original, collaborative and genre-bending new works for the stage. Emerging from backgrounds in performance, sound-making and visual design, Kickwheel utilizes a full-contact, meta-disciplinary approach to concocting, composing and devising original theater productions and events. While each project is unique, Kickwheel draws from diverse approaches to storytelling that often integrate heightened physicality, rich language and original music to capture what is most outrageously human in all of us.
Recent projects include Dark: An end of the World Play with Music and an Exercise Bike, The Waypoint (MASS MoCA, artist in residency), Long Way Down, Flark, and Bad Influence Stephen (all short works appearing at The Berkshire Fringe), 365 Days/365 Plays and Passage, the company’s newest full length work slated to premiere in 2015.
As an ensemble of artists working primarily in a rural community, Kickwheel is committed to creating original performances and events that serve as a gathering place for diverse audiences. Open rehearsals, post show chats and affordable tickets are some of the ways Kickwheel engages new viewers, inspires dialogue and promotes the medium of live theater as a hub for innovation and artistic exchange.