House of the Rising Son at Atwater Village Theatre

House of the Rising Son

Atwater Village Theatre
3269 Casitas Ave Atwater Village

Tennessee Williams meets Anne Rice in a subversive, Southern gothic romance. A parasitologist at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum, Trent Varro brings his new lover home to meet the family in New Orleans. Populated with ghosts and parasites, Jacobson's play mixes the supernatural with science to illuminate hot button issues of gay marriage and equality in a whole new way. It's at once a ghost story, a love story, and a family story.

Presented by Circle X Theatre Co.

Thru - Jun 12, 2011

Price: $15-$25

Show Type: Drama

Box Office: 323-644-1929

www.ensemblestudiotheatrela.org

House of the Rising Son Reviews

Average Rating based on 6 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Los Angeles Times - Highly Recommended

"...A generational saga, "House" bristles with the same kind of self-loathing secretiveness that forced Williams to cloak his homosexual themes in myth and metaphor. But that covert quality is balanced by an emotional openness and poignant pride reminiscent of Terrence McNally's "Love! Valour! Compassion!" All this, with plenty of laughs."

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- F. Kathleen Foley

Backstage - Highly Recommended

"...Tom Jacobson's galvanic drama "House of the Rising Son," now receiving its world premiere, boasts some of his trademark qualities, such as shrewd scientific metaphors and astute ruminations on social issues. Those heady ideas are embellished here with the sublime pleasures of a well-spun yarn chock-full of surprises. Equal parts ghost story and unorthodox family drama, this gripping play is further blessed with an unmistakable whiff of Tennessee Williams–style lyricism."

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- Les Spindle

Talkin Broadway - Highly Recommended

"...In fact, you can't. Sure, there are some clues along the way that more is going on here than meets the eye. Certainly, there's something delightfully otherworldly in the mix, as we discover when Felix, shining his flashlight around the cemetery, lets it rest on Trent's father's face (in his overlapping scene in New Orleans) and actually sees the man. But it's all leading up to a first-act curtain reveal that raises more questions than it answers, and a second act that thoroughly satisfies. On one level, the play is about Trent and Felix, and whether they can have the relationship they want, given the problems caused by Trent's family. On another level, the play is about parasites and extinction, the survival of humans (and groups of humans), and the supernatural and the poetic. And when Jacobson weaves them all together, the result is a terrific play."

- Sharon Perlmutter

Edge - Recommended

"...The play is riveting and brilliant. Though the second act meanders some and occasionally feels like an adaptation of some multilayered Southern novel, the dialogue is taut, the plotting is sumptuous, and the array of theatrical delights which propel the play forward are many and varied."

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- Trevor Thomas

Stage Scene LA - Highly Recommended

"...House Of The Rising Son is at once an exciting addition to the "gay play" genre, and an exciting new play period, a highly original work in which gay themes are used to tell a human story that any broad-minded theatergoer will be able to identify with. Believe me; people will be talking about House Of The Rising Sun even as they keep their lips sealed about its many surprises."

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- Steven Stanley

StageHappenings.com - Highly Recommended

"...This is difficult material and Michetti guides his talented cast through the maze that is this story. The performances are first rate. The play stars Steve Combs, Nicholas Hormann, Patrick John Hurley, and Paul Witten. Hormann has stepped in for actor Rod Menzies who originated the role of the patriarch. Why, you might ask would and actor of Hormann's experience and skill be willing to be a replacement. Well it is a brilliant role and Hormann is brilliant in it. Every gesture, every eye movement, every slight change in emotional direction, he is there and delivers a masterful performance."

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- Robert Machray

House of the Rising Son at Atwater Village Theatre