Saturday, September 19, 2009

"Maintenance Man" at B Street

FROM B STREET THEATRE:

The B Street Theatre is pleased to announce as the third show of its 2009-2010 Mainstage Season: THE MAINTENANCE by British playwright Richard Harris.


The Play

THE MAINTENANCE MAN is a bittersweet and bitingly perceptive look at the collapse of a marriage and the development and decay of an affair. THE MAINTENANCE MAN opens with the self-absorbed Bob fixing a set of shelves in the home of his estranged wife, Chris; then through a series of seamless flashbacks we learn the cause of Bob’s and Chris’s breakup: a former ballet teacher named Diana. As scenes bounce artfully backward and forward, a comedic web of deceit, hurt and recrimination is woven that captures all three characters in its ever-tightening strands.


The Playwright

Richard Harris was born in London. His stage plays have been performed all over the world and include PARTNERS (1969), Two and Two Make Sex (1973), Conscience Be Damned (1975), Outside Edge (1979), which won him the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright in 1979, The Dog It Was (1980), The Business of Murder (1981), which ran for seven years at the Mayfair Theatre, Local Affairs (1982), Stepping Out (1984), winner of the Standard Drama Award for Comedy in 1984, The Maintenance Man (1986), Visiting Hour (1987), a group of short plays performed as a platform production at the National Theatre, Party Piece (1990), Dead Guilty (1994), and an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, which ran at the Comedy Theatre in 2001. His latest play, Going Straight, opened at Windsor Theatre Royal September 2004 before commencing on a nationwide tour.

He has written many plays for television, has contributed to countless television series and co-created the 1979–80 BBC series Shoestring, starring Trevor Eve, and the 60s ITV series Man in a Suitcase. His script, Searching for SeƱor Duende, won him the New York Television Festival Gold Award for Best Writer. His series based on his play Outside Edge won major craft awards including the Writers’ Guild Best Comedy Award, the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Drama Series and the Television and Radio Industries Club Award for Best Comedy.

Richard Harris has also written scripts for ITV’s early 90s series, The Darling Buds of May, which starred David Jason as Pop Larkin and Catherine Zeta Jones as Mariette Larkin, and the first five episodes in ITV’s long-running detective drama, A Touch of Frost. He has just finished writing The Last Detective, a TV series based on a Leslie Thomas character, which was aired between February 2003 and March 2004.

His radio play Is It Something I Said? was winner of a Giles Cooper Radio Award. He has written several screenplays, including an adaptation of his stage play Stepping Out.


The Cast

THE MAINTENANCE MAN will feature B Street stalwart Kurt Johnson as the incorrigible Bob. Los Angeles based actress Rebecca Dines (THE GOD OF HELL, MANY HAPPY RETURNS)returns to the B Street stage as Bob’s wife Chris. B Street newcomer Alison Lees-Taylor, another Los Angeles based actress, rounds out the three person comedy portraying Bob’s lover Diana.


The Schedule/Tickets

Previews: Saturday September 26 at 5:00 p.m. and Sunday September 27 at 2:00 p.m. Opening Night: Sunday September 27 at 7:00 p.m.
Runs: Tuesday and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday at 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. (except November 7), and Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
Wednesday Matinees at 2:00 p.m.
THE MAINTENANCE MAN closes Sunday November 8.
Ticket Prices are: $18.00-$30.00
THE MAINTENANCE MAN will be performed on the B Street Theatre Mainstage: 2711 B Street behind Stanford Park Baseball Field at 27th and C Streets in Midtown Sacramento.

B Street Box Office (916)443-5300
www.bstreettheatre.org
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Buck Busfield
Producing Artistic Director
The B Street Theatre
2711 B Street
Sacramento, CA 95816
(916)443-5391
www.bstreettheatre.org=

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