Cast: Antonio Brunetti, John Kahara, Sara Tolan Mee, and Tiffany Joy Ross.
Playwright
Ken Prestininzi is an American playwright, director, and dramaturg. He is Associate Artistic Director of the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre. His existential extravaganza play, AmeriKafka, was produced by Trap Door Theatre. He is also the author of the musicals Favorite of the King, Pe’er Flynt, and Ariadne as well as the plays The Burger Girl Jingle, The Hole, and Kept. Prestininzi began working with Hendrickson in the early 1990s when Hendrickson commissioned Prestininzi to write The Hole, a new play inspired by Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground. They’ve sustained their collaborative relationship for over 15 years, and under the auspices of Trap Door Theatre, it is thriving. In their work, Hendrickson and Prestininzi spark each other to make precise leaps of imagination, intellect and emotion in order to invite and instigate palpable human connections with the theatrical choices they make. Together they form a director/playwright team of shared reverie, theatrical vision and the belief in the persuasion of intimacy and commitment.
Assistant Director: Jen Ellison / Sound Designers: Jason Meyer & Shane Oman / Lighting Designer: Gina Patterson / Set Designer: Joseph Riley / Stage Manager: Gary Damico / Costume Designer: Nevena Todorovic / Makeup Designer: Zsófia Ötvös / Graphic Designer: Michal Janicki
Chaste: An Awful Comedy
Written by Ken Prestininzi
Directed by Kate Hendrickson
May 13 – June 26, 2012
Recognized as “Best of 2010” from Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune and The Huffington Post
Chaste is the third in a series of Prestininzi plays (all premiered at Trap Door under Hendrickson’s direction) taking inspiration from the lives of German-speaking thinkers and artists: Franz Kafka in AmeriKafka, Rainer Maria Rilke & Paula Modersohn-Becker in Beholder, and now Friedrich Nietzsche in Chaste. In 1882 Paul Ree introduced his friend Nietzsche to a young Russian woman named Lou Salome (a novelist, essayist, and thinker who would later become a muse and colleague to both Rilke and Freud). The three formed a plan to live together as a chaste trio dedicated to a life of the mind. Calling up and distorting this history, Chaste wildly imagines what would have happened if they had realized their dream. In this chaste ménage a trios, Nietzsche bets the triumph of his will against the incomparable desires of a virginal girl. Despite their promises to bring out the most brilliant in each other, a primal battle for love and domination begins. Their unchecked ambition and reckless intimacy surprises all three. Pygmalion never had it so bad, nor Red Riding Hood so good, as they do in this perverse comedy of their own devising.
Gallery
Devilishly smart, sardonic and emotionally rich… One doesn’t need to know much – or anything – about the historical background of the trio to enjoy Kate Hendrickson’s high-octane staging. Joseph Riley’s set – a series of platforms with trapdoors and inclines – embodies the intellectual gymnastics… Highly recommended!
Kerry Reid, Chicago Tribune
Chaste, now in its world premiere at Trap Door Theatre, captures the insanity, pain – and yes, the uttercomic madness too – that is endured… as a very young and intellectually precocious Salome (Sarah Tolan Mee), attempts to establish a “marriage of minds and souls” (…) Nevena Todorovic’s Victorian era costumes are exquisite…
Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun Times
It’s hard to think of a theatrical team more in sync than director Kate Hendrickson and playwright Ken Prestininzi. For their third outing at Trap Door Theatre, they turn an arcane historical curiosity … into a heady, intoxicating swirl of screwball comedy, philosophical debate, and lecherous fever dream. Highly Recommended.”
Justin Hayford,Chicago Reader
Cruelly funny! The lofty-minded trio, plus Nietzsche’s castrating sister Elizabeth, manhandles each other across the blank surfaces of Joseph Riley’s fittingly difficult set. (…) Stylistic gambles such as a dream sequence that mashes up fairy tales, verse and violence work thanks to Hendrickson’s gutsy direction.”
Melissa Albert, Time Out Chicago
It’s like watching three freakishly smart teenagers fight for the affections of one another. The actors all play their roles with a fiery passion. Director Kate Hendrickson has a keen eye for stunning stage pictures. The lunacy that love inspires within these three lunatics, as told by a talented writer through a talented cast, makes for a four-star play!”
Keith Ecker, Chicago Theatre Blog
Chaste illustrates the reality of celibate artistry as horny madness [and] exploits the absurd lunacy of libido over intellect.”
Katy Walsh, The Fourth Walsh / Chicago Now
Director
Resident Director Kate Hendrikson specializes in premiering new plays by radical American playwrights, and has been a Trap Door company member since 2005. Kate is a Chicago native and a graduate of Bennington College. In addition to her work with Trap Door Kate has directed for Chicago Dramatists, Red Tape, Link’s Hall Physical Fest, Pivot Arts, and the International Voices Project. She is also a teaching artist with Urban Gateways.