British playwright Sir David Hare's “The Breath of Life” is this week's Saturday Staged Reading at the Actors Theatre Playhouse, featuring Terri Storti and Shoshana Rihn.
Performances are Sept. 7 and 14, at 7:30 p.m. Burt Tepfer directs.
Staged readings, part of the Actors Theatre Playhouse's programming for many seasons, enables actors to sit at at a table and fully perform with script in hand. These aren't concert readings, but rather are fully realized performances - sans scenery and staging.
“The Breath of Life” opened in London in 2002 and starred Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Judy Dench. It was the first time the two had appeared together on the London stage, and the show sold out months before it opened.
British Theatre World reported at the time, “The two circle each other like prize-fighters before engaging in serious verbal battle. What soon becomes apparent is that the best way for them to come to terms with themselves and each other is to share experiences rather than score points. Only then can they reach the closure and catharsis that they both require.”
Gauguin's epigram - “Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge” - serves as the motto for this morality tale of two women, both in their 60s, whose lives are interwoven in ways neither of them yet understands.
Of Storti and Rihn, Tepfer says he was “so fortunate to be able to get two of Brattleboro's finest actresses to perform this challenging play. Two women on a stage come face to face to explore the truth of their lives. I look forward to how our audiences will respond.”