'The Madwoman of Chaillot' Presented at USU

The Madwoman of Chaillot, directed by Lee Daily, opens at Utah State University and is presented by the Department of Theatre Arts through the Caine School of the Arts. Performances are April 9-11 and 15-18 at the Morgan Theatre in the Chase Fine Arts Center on the USU campus (approximately 1110 E. 610 North, Logan).

Tickets are $13 for the public and free to USU students and are available by calling the Caine School of the Arts Box Office, (435) 797-8022, visiting the box office online or at the door.

 

The play opens with a financial meeting between the corrupt president of a new corporation, the ignorant figurehead who has lent his prestige to the corporation and the president's financier who has generated massive profits for them by manipulating the corporation’s stock price through false press releases. Enter Aurelia, the Madwoman of Chaillot. Her outrageous dress instantly marks her as someone out of step with society, and her behavior completes the picture. She lives in a dream world where people are good and charitable, and she assumes everyone else lives there too. Aurelia has many followers, mostly among the outcast poor — because they prefer the illusion of her world to the reality of theirs. It is up to the Madwoman and the common masses to overthrow these evil forces.

 

The play presents the question of whether Aurelia is mad for not recognizing the reality around her, or whether it is the world itself that has gone mad, said Daily.

 

“Although this play was written in the aftermath of World War II in Paris, it still resonates with our situation in America today and is told through the eyes of exaggerated characters with absurd yet poignant dialogue,” he said. “It will be an intellectual and visual treat.”

 

For information about the production, contact the Department of Theatre Arts at USU, (435) 797-3046.

 

 

Writer: Sally Okelberry (435) 797-1500; sally.okelberry@usu.edu
Contact: Colin Johnson, colin.johnson@usu.edu