 By Lanford Wilson
Directed by Michael Barakiva
“Make it as personal as you can…make it personal, tell the truth, and then write ‘Burn this’ on it.” – Burton, Burn This, Act II
In selecting the season’s two contemporary plays, Artistic Director Marco Barricelli looked for works with “a muscularity of language and/or theme” that sit well alongside the two Shakepeare plays. Burn This is set in a spare lower-Manhattan loft where Anna, a dancer and budding choreographer, her screenwriter boyfriend Burton, and her gay roommate Larry, a droll advertising executive, are recovering from the tragic death of Anna and Larry’s roommate Robbie, a talented young dancer. Enter Pale, Robbie’s charismatic and slyly subverting older brother, and the measured balance of their lives and ambitions is irrevocably disrupted and challenged. A dryly funny and painfully human collision of a story by playwright Lanford Wilson (1937 -), Burn This engages mature audiences with its wit and its unavoidable, recognizable humanity. Director Michael Barakiva acknowledges, “As an artist in my early 30s, I am painfully aware of what these characters are experiencing: the process of coming to terms with the repercussions of the life-decisions you made in your 20s without realizing you'd made them. At some point you stop and look at the life you've made for yourself, in all its glory and inadequacies, and wonder how you got there. And, more importantly, how you're going to get past it.”
Director Michael Barakiva has worked with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and New Dramatists, among others. A winner of the David Merrick Prize in Drama, Mr. Barakiva is based in New York City and makes his SSC directorial debut. Scenic Design by John Iacovelli. Costume Design by Olivera Gajic. Lighting Design by David Lee Cuthbert. Sound Design by Tom Cavnar.
Performed on the indoor Theatre Arts Mainstage. For mature audiences, strong language.
Photo: Director Michael Barakiva
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