10/8/2011 @ 8:00

5/19/2012 @ 10:00

The Gilbert C. Eastman Studio Theatre at Gallaudet University (Elstad Annex)
800 Florida Ave NE
Washington, DC 20002

Reserve your tickets for all of our mainstage shows in our 2011-2012 season! Faction of Fools is excited to launch Season Three in residence at Gallaudet University, where we will partner with Theatre Arts students and faculty to further explore the multilingual history of Commedia dell'Arte and the rich ways in which gesture and physicality can communicate, enlighten, amuse, and inspire. Our season opens with a classic Renaissance comedy written by a man more notorious for his politics: Machiavelli's The Mandrake creates an unlikely happy ending out of the hilarious deceptions people employ for love. The Mandrake, opening in September of 2011, will be our inaugural performance in Gallaudet's Elstad Auditorium. In the New Year, we offer a semester of Shakespeareadapting two of the Bard's most famous tragedies to the Commedia dell'Arte style that so greatly influenced him. Romeo and Juliet, the classic story of two young lovers divided by a family feud, borrows heavily from the tradition of the Italian Comedy, and our high-octane version (featuring five actors in a one-hour cutting) brings physical spectacularity to Shakespeare's poetry and highlights tragedy by juxtaposing it with humor. Our Commedia Romeo and Juliet will premiere at the Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint in January 2012 and then begin touring local schools and universities. We follow this love-story-gone-wrong with another unlikely tragicomedy: Hamlecchino, Clown Prince of Denmark, which puts the Commedia servant Arlecchino in the lead role of Hamlet, matching Shakespeare's poignant philosophy with Commedia's surprising physical comedy. Joining Shakespeare's original language with Faction of Fools' inventive style, Hamlecchino is sure to be a Hamlet like no other and will premiere at Gallaudet in April of 2012.