Cast: Antonio Brunetti, Geraldine Dulex, Jody Kingsley, and Chris Popio.
Playwright/ Director
Emilio Williams is a Spanish playwright and director. He has written such plays as Tables and Beds, Medea’s got some Issues, and Your Problem with Men. He is well known in Spain as one of the most interesting new voices on the alternative stage. Since 2007, his profound comedies have gained him both critical and audience acclaim. His work has been produced in Spain, France and the United States.
Smartphones
-A Pocket-size Farce
Written and Directed by Emilio Williams
July 19 – August 18, 2012
Presented with support from the Instituto Cervantes Chicago and the International Voices Project.
What happens when our lives become more absurd than an avant-garde play? Smartphones is a new comedy by Spanish award-winning playwright and director Emilio Williams. The play is a madcap comedy, both a parody and a tribute to the great theater of the absurd, and the surrealist films of Luis Buñuel, such as The Exterminating Angel and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. Last March the play received its first public reading in Spain at the world-renowned Teatro Español. Luis Maria Anson, a leading cultural critic wrote in the Sunday edition of El Mundo newspaper a raving review: “The author has placed a mirror between Samuel Beckett and Yasmina Reza to reflect the new realities of human relationships. (…) He has threaded together perfectly-pitched dialogues with profound thoughts and social criticism.”
Gallery
Emilio Williams’s deft, of-the-moment comedy is worth tweeting about. (…) Williams and his deft cast tweak theatrical conventions and technological obsessions with joy and, indeed, smarts.
Kris Vire, Time Out Chicago
Smartphones: A Pocket-Size Farce is a smart, well-executed show with just the right ratio of mockery to substance. Recommended!” –
Keith Griffith, Chicago Reader
Ah, what a refreshing thing a good farce can be on a hot summer day. In a nation with a drought of not just rain but quality satire, the premiere of Emilio Williams’ Smartphones: A Pocket-Size Farce delivers a quirky little comedy with a sneakily smart dose of both old and new humor.
Clint May, Chicago Theater Beat
One of the funniest and cleverest pieces of absurd theater I have ever seen. (…) I laughed, I gasped, I cringed, I enjoyed every second of it. It’s theater of the absurd for the digital age.
Jake Lindquist, Chicago Stage Style
The cast delivers the craziness with a calculated combination of choreographed restraint and reckless abandon. (…)This show looks as good as next year’s iPhone upgrade. Recommended!
Venus Zarris, Chicago Stage Review
The cast is wonderful as a unit, but Jodi Kingsley (…) manages to humanize an absurdist character, and once you’ve seen that, you start to think that all absurdist comedies might be improved by such a performance. Recommended!
Lisa Findley, Center Stage
Trap Door’s 2012 season was named “The Best String of Theatrical Stunners”
Chicago Reader
Set Design: Brian Sidney Bembridge / Lighting Design: Richard Norwood /Costume Design: Tonette Navarro / Original Music: Gabriel Dib / Stage Manager: Skye Fort / Make-up Design: Zsofia Otvos / Graphic Design: Michal Janicki / Fight Choreography: Justin Verstraete / P.R.: Austin Hassett / Assistants Director: Mariana Leite & Gary Damico