Upstream Theater Postpones IPHIGENIA IN SPLOTT to October

In keeping with the evolving response to the current public health crisis, Upstream Theater is postponing their regional premiere of IPHIGENIA IN SPLOTT by Welsh playwright Gary Owen until next season. The play is now scheduled to run from October 9-25. If single tickets or a season passport were purchased, they will honor your ticket at that time.

In keeping with their mission, Upstream Theater has suggestions to "move you, and move you to think."

For a historical look at how St. Louis wisely dealt with the flu epidemic of 1918 click here.

Going a little further back, to see how one group of self-quarantined people occupied themselves in the 14th Century, they recommend Boccaccio's Decameron. I personally enjoy the first English rendering by Shakespeare contemporary John Florio--translator, tutor, and spy:

The Ladies and Gentlemen allowed of the motion, to spend the time in telling pleasant tales; whereupon the Queene saide: Seeing you have approved mine advice, I grant free permission for this first day, that every one shall relate, what to him or her is best pleasing.

Inspired by the Greek myth of a young woman offered as human sacrifice, Gary Owen's IPHIGENIA IN SPLOTT is a boisterous and blisteringly poetic monologue that drives home the high price people pay for society's shortcomings.

Effie is the kind of person you'd avoid eye contact with as she stumbles drunk around Cardiff's gritty Splott neighborhood at 11:30 am, spiraling through a daily mess of drink, drugs and drama followed by a hangover worse than death. You think you know her, but you really don't-because she has made a choice that you could never have expected.

While awarding the prestigious James Tait Black Award at the Edingburgh Festival, judges praised Owen's innovative writing that "makes audiences laugh, cry, and stand up to revolt"-a fitting close to our 15th season that began with THE AGITATORS and continued with our runaway rave hit WILDFIRE.

With Jennifer Theby-Quinn, directed by Patrick Siler.