"Ladies and Gentlemen, I couldn't agree with you more... this is all perfectly idiotic."
--Foursome, Eugene Ionesco

September 2007

Thanks to everyone who spent their evening with us during the recent Philadelphia Live Arts and Fringe Festival.

Four of a Kind marked the fifth production from the Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium since the company's formation in May 2006. We're happy to report we sold out many shows during the Fringe run and met many new audience members interested in seeing the works of these great playwrights. If you missed Four of a Kind, the show title refers to the aesthetic similarities of the authors, and that they often publicly acknowledged a great debt to the others for influencing their work. Here's a bit from the program about what we set out to do:

Trouble in the Works is early Pinter, vintage British sketch, written a decade before Monty Python's formation. Originally written for BBC radio, Pinter was asked to change the punch line of the piece due to fears this single word would foment civil unrest.

Short plays are deceiving: each moment is considered, there is no excess. The shortest piece you'll see tonight is Beckett's Come & Go. In preparing for this Fringe we used Samuel Beckett's Production Notebooks, the journals he kept while preparing to direct his plays in Germany and England. We spent hours drinking beer and grousing over six words -- which find their way in or out of Come & Go, depending on which version of the play you are looking at. We settled on the 127-word version, the script Beckett used in preparation for the 1978 Schiller Theatre production in Berlin.

Each author's work has its challenges: handling the complexity of the language, handling the complexity of the silences. Working through the intricacies of Beckett's work is relaxing, partly because it forces you to settle in, take your time and focus on the process and the idea that the experience will be different every time. Tonight's sampler includes authors whose work you'll be seeing more of in the years to come. We look forward to having you in the audience as we continue to tackle the challenges - acting, directing, designing -- these formidable authors present. You can follow our progress by visiting our web site, by coming to see the work, by making suggestions, by volunteering your time and resources.

We are making plans for a March 2008 show at L'Etage, tentatively titled Trois Dramaturge Serieux! (Three Important Playwrights) -- a sampler of shorter works from Eugene Ionesco, Tennessee Williams and Christopher Durang. Dates and details will be available soon.

Thanks for checking in and hope to see you in March!

Tina Brock
Artistic Director

info@idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.com