Cast: Jacob Alexander, Antonio Brunetti, Marzena Bukowska, Simina Contras, Nicholas Loumas, Lyndsay Rose Kane, Chris Popio, J. Keegan Siebken, Nicole Wiesner, and Carl Wisniewski.
Playwright
Rainer-Werner Fassbinder was best known for his powerful, offbeat, messy films. He made forty films by the time he died of a drug overdose at thirty six. He began his work in the theatre in the late sixties, as a twenty-two year old. He acted, directed, (loosely) adapted classics by Buchner, Goethe, Sophocles, Goldoni and others, wrote several of his own plays, and in a few years emerged as the leader of a group of performers who worked with him until his death in 1982. Fassbinder’s plays, like the films, are about varieties of alienation. The images Fassbinder created for the stage, and in films, linger as grotesque and brutal, possessing a strange, improbable truth…In a way, Fassbinder made a career out of despair-selling his own and others’ misery in endless variations, operating according to a system he did not create. Other works included in his controversial anti-theater plays are: Bremen Freedom, Blood on the Cat’s Neck, Katzelmacher, and The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.
Assistant Director: Emily Lotspeich / Stage Manager: Allison Goetzman / Set Design: Richard Norwood / Costume Design: Rachel Sypniewski / Lighting Design: Richard Norwood / Sound Design: Danny Rockett / Make-Up Design: Zsofia Otvos / Graphic Design: Michal Janicki
Blood on the Cat’s Neck
Written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Translated by Denis Calandra
Directed by Beata Pilch
November 14 – December 28, 2013
Inspired by the original Trap Door production directed by Andrew Cooper Wasser
The naked exploring alien Phoebe Zeitgeist studies human democracy through encounters with earthly inhabitants. Travel along with Phoebe as she sinks her teeth into a cast of lovers, models, butchers, teachers, soldiers, and girls. Originally directed for the Trap Door Theatre in November of 1996 “with sound and fury”- by Andrew Cooper Wasser.
Gallery
…under the direction of artistic director Beata Pilch, this cast of ten, commits themselves to Fassbinder’s twisted world and delivers a seventy-minute show that’s as captivating as it is confounding.
Zach Freeman, Newcity
Even in one of the most prominent theater communities in the country, Trap Door remains one of the few accessible, ambassadorial institutions for truly experimental work.
Dan Jakes, Time Out
Recommended!
Chicago Reader, Chicago Theatre Critic, and New City
Director
Beata Pilch founded Trap Door Theatre in 1994. Originally from Chicago, she holds a BFA in Acting from the United States International University in San Diego and a MFA in Acting from California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA. She had the honor to graduate as a magna cum laude from both universities and was later awarded the Prestigious Alumni award from CalArts. Pilch founded Chicago’s Trap Door Theatre in 1994 and still presides as its Artistic Director. She has directed and performed in over 80 Trap Door productions and has toured abroad annually with the company to France, Romania, Hungary, Poland and was the first US theatre company ever to perform in the Republic of Moldova. In 2015, Beata created a sister company, Trap Door International, which produces out of Barcelona, Spain.