Death of the Author at Geffen Playhouse

Death of the Author

Geffen Playhouse
10886 Le Conte Avenue Los Angeles

With a world of knowledge just a smartphone away, is there still such a thing as an original idea? When a young professor at an elite university suspects a student of plagiarism, his inquiry sparks a chain of events affecting the lives of four people in very real ways. Orson Bean (Desperate Housewives, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), Austin Butler (Aliens in the Attic, The Carrie Diaries), David Clayton Rogers (Mixology, Nashville) and Lyndon Smith (Parenthood, 90210) star in this world premiere drama from Pulitzer Prize-nominated playwright Steven Drukman (Another Fine Mess) and directed by Bart DeLorenzo (Mayhem). Smart, funny and thought-provoking, Death of the Author challenges beliefs about class, ambition, and the nature of right and wrong.

Thru - Jun 29, 2014

Price: $59-$64

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 310-208-2028

www.geffenplayhouse.com

Geffen Playhouse Seating Charts

Nearby Restaurants

Death of the Author Reviews

Average Rating based on 8 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Los Angeles Times - Recommended

"...Before you start fretting that "Death of the Author," which is having its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse's Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater in a slyly humorous production directed by Bart DeLorenzo, will be all about signs, signifiers and heavily jargonized abstractions, let me assure you that the play is perfectly accessible. Even if you weren't a graduate student in the late decades of the 20th century poring over Derrida's "Of Grammatology" and Barthes' watershed essay "The Death of the Author," from which Drukman has filched his title, this satire of modern campus life will still sting."

Read Full Review

- Charles McNulty

LA Weekly - Recommended

"...Early on, the jokes and exposition feel a bit sitcom-y at times, but once Sykes hits the stage with his verbal fireworks, the show finds its legs and grows ever more interesting. Director Bart DeLorenzo's work with the talented cast is laudable, but the mirrored-wall set he creates with designer Takeshi Kata – reminiscent of a '70s disco or a sci-fi film – seems strangely out of place, even with its potentially postmodern reflections."

Read Full Review

- Mayank Keshaviah

Talkin Broadway - Somewhat Recommended

"...The domain of higher education has become more treacherous in unexpected ways, and Steven Drukman's clever new play Death of the Author charts the territory with pointed wit. It's unfortunate, however, that the brilliance of the first hour sputters out in a weak and contrived finale."

Read Full Review

- Terry Morgan

Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended

"...In Bart DeLorenzo's production at the Geffen, this play crawls toward its thematically incoherent ends on Takeshi Kata's equally incoherent set – a mirrored shadow box that allows viewers to watch each other whenever this one-act world premiere lags."

Read Full Review

- Jason Rohrer

Stage Scene LA - Recommended

"...It is smart, suspenseful, surprising, downright sensational writing, and with DeLorenzo in the director's chair and a superb cast giving it added layers and depth, it makes for a play and production I could easily see again and again."

- Steven Stanley

ArtsBeatLA - Recommended

"...I was simultaneously aroused and intimidated by the intelligence of playwright Steven Drukman's Death of the Author. This play is highly recommended – but be advised, if you're not conversant in the theories of semioticians Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida, a quick Wikipedia search before the show may be in order. Despite its lofty conceits, this play itself is human and accessible. Best of all, I walked out thinking."

Read Full Review

- Brian Sonia-Wallace

ArtsInLA - Recommended

"...Steven Drukman's Death of the Author is, hands down, one of the very best plays of the year. A mystery wrapped within a psychological portrait gallery within a stinging critique of academic politics, it satisfies on every level during its completely gripping 90 minutes."

Read Full Review

- Bob Verini

KCRW - Somewhat Recommended

"...No such luck. Death of the Author, for all it's theoretical chatter, is a straightforward, linear, plot driven narrative. Mr. Drukman understands the American regional theater audience as well as he understands literary theory. So if you're up for 90 minutes of intriguing ideas, go for it. Just know it's more talk than action."

Read Full Review

- Anthony Byrnes

Death of the Author at Geffen Playhouse