Occupied Paris. 1944. Real life celebrity Nazi Werner Krauss is between projects. But the Party, desperate for a propaganda extravaganza in the City of Lights, has arranged a remount of his notorious Merchant of Venice produced by a French theater teeming with family secrets. Paris, ACTORS! is “The Last Metro” if Truffaut were unavailable to direct, but the Marx Brothers were. A madcap backstage drama, penned by Obie Award-winning actor and playwright Hamish Linklater, appearing together with some of our best-loved actors of the American theater.
THE CAST
ABOUT THE PLAY
Marketing is wondering what inspired me to write a play about citizen/artists grappling with their duties as citizens and artists when they find themselves under the thumb of a fascist regime … whelp, the answer’s kinda in the question, isn’t it! or as my mama told me when I asked her what’s the point of it all - being an actor, making plays - she said: “hold the mirror up, baby boy, hold the mirror up! (And make em laugh)
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Hamish Linklater is an actor, writer, director who’s plays include The Whirligig, produced by The New Group starring Grace Van Patten, Zosia Mamet and Lorbert Leo Butz, The Cheats, produced by Steep Theatre in Chicago, and The Vandal, produced by the Flea Theater starring Didi O’Connel, and various other theaters internationally. The Vandal was also filmed for the PBS series Theatre Close-Up, and enjoyed an award winning tv & stage adaptation in Romania. His plays have received development support from MTC, Playwrights’ Horizons, Red Bull, New York Stage & Film, The Public among others. His film and TV credits include the adaptation and co-direction with Lily Rabe of Chuck Klosterman’s “Downtown Owl” (Netflix) starring Ed Harris, Finn Wittrock and Henry Golding, an adaptation of Denise Mina’s “The Less Dead” for MadeUp Stories, and Rachel Aviv’s New Yorker profile of Agnes Callard for Ben Affleck’s Artist Equity. Paris, ACTORS! was workshopped at Williamstown under the direction of Jack O’Brien featuring Lily Rabe and Michael Stuhlbarg.