Join us for 12 world-class productions, three of which will take will take place off-site while the new Associated Bank Theater Center is under construction.
For our 2024/25 Season we are excited to offer 12 productions that are sure to entertain and inspire. Discover remarkable performances, soul-shaking rhythms, fresh takes on classics and bold world premieres. This season includes:
* A World Premiere musical based off the Pulitzer Prize finalist and Tony-nominated play by Craig Lucas, Prelude to a Kiss: The Musical.
* Two World Premiere musicals created by Artistic Director Mark Clements in the Stackner Cabaret – Women of Rock and The Craic.
* A Studio Season with the regional premiere of The Coast Starlight direct from Lincoln Center and a bilingual play, Espejos: Clean.
* The acclaimed London West End production of The Woman in Black with its stellar British cast
Don’t miss Milwaukee’s favorite holiday tradition, A Christmas Carol celebrating its 49th Anniversary in the historic Pabst Theater with Rep favorite Matt Daniels returning as Ebenezer Scrooge.
and extra credit reading: information on the rebuilding of the Rep spaces and their capital campaign can be found here.
From this morning’s email,: the Milwaukee Repertory Theater announces their one day sale for their 2023 presentation of their classic, A Christmas Carol, at the historic Pabst Theater.
The One Day Sale is this coming Monday, September 25th. Tickets can be purchased at up to 25% OFF if you use the code FALL when ordering. There is a limit of 8 tickets per order, so plan accordingly!
The Rep’s Box Office can be accessed online starting at 7 AM, here …or by calling the box office after 9 AM: 414-224-9490!
Friday night, I attended The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s opening of Yasmina Reza’s God Of Carnage. And sadly, in his opening remarks, Rep Artistic Director Mark Clements reminded us that this is the last play in the Rep’s 2022/2023 season. A season that has seemed to end far too hastily.
I think I remembered this right, but mid-play or so, Veronica says: “I don’t have a sense of humor. And I have no intention of acquiring one”! And that is about how I felt as I was walking down the stairs from the Quadracci Theater.
left to right: Adam Poss. Heidi Armbruster, Makha Mthembu, and Elan Zafir. photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of The Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
This is a dark, dark, dark, dark comedy. There are four characters here. Two sets of parents who meet to discuss a playground altercation between their sons. What starts as a conversation in an obvious upper middle class home…as strangers begin to get to know each other…and begin to discuss the situation, we get to meet Veronica (Heidi Armbruster) and Michael (Adam Poss) as the parents of the ‘victim’, although that term may be up for review, and Annette (Makha Mthembu) and Alan (Elan Zafir) as the parents of the ‘attacker’, also open to reinterpretation or redefinition during the play.
left to right: Makha Mthembu, Elan Zafir, Heidi Armbruster (in rear) and Adam Poss. photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of The Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
But everything quickly leaves the tracks and we clearly witness the destruction and abandonment of civility and maybe even the demise of civilization…well certainly at least, social and cultural mores, marriage, personal space, and the shattering of the facade of personal identity. Director Ryan Quinn pushes and pushes the characters until the play lives up to its title, God Of Carnage, yet there are no gods here.
And then it ends. I wasn’t expecting the end when it occurred…but it ends. How could this be the end?
left to right: Adam Poss and Elan Zafir. photo by Michael Brosilow and courtesy of The Milwaukee Repertory Theater.
I am not sure what the cast does to unwind each evening after their performances but I can’t imagine the intensity of emotions that they are called upon to present can simply be shrugged off at curtain close. And there is no intermission in which to catch their breath…or ours for that matter.
This play feels particularly contemporary, and I guess that it is. And it feels particularly American of the moment…but it isn’t. God Of Carnage was originally written in French by Yasmina Reza. So we are seeing it in translation…the English translation by playwright Christopher Hampton.
