MINNEAPOLIS: Guthrie Theater has announced its 2018-19 season, featuring 8 productions.
“It thrills me immensely to announce these productions today,” said artistic director Joe Haj in a statement. “The Guthrie is devoted to both classic and contemporary plays, and next season will be an exciting combination of time-honored favorites and brilliant new work. In 2018–19, it is my hope that we’ll continue to see ourselves as well as our neighbors in the work we present, ask meaningful questions of each other, broaden our perspectives, and expand our tastes—all while being thoroughly entertained.”
The season will start with Playing With Fire (Sept. 15-Oct. 27), adapted by Barbara Field from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The thriller, a commission by the Guthrie, imagines a meeting between a dying Victor Frankenstein and his creation in the frozen tundra of the Arctic Circle.
Next up will be Noises Off (Oct. 27-Dec. 16), by Michael Frayn, a metatheatrical farce about the behind-the-scenes drama and onstage mishaps of an acting troupe performing a farce.
Following will be The Great Leap (Jan. 12-Feb. 10, 2019), by Lauren Yee, a comedy about an American basketball team that travels to Beijing for an exhibition game in 1989.
The season will continue with a Shakespeare play (Feb. 9-March 17, 2019), to be announced later this spring.
Next will be Cyrano de Bergerac (March 16-May 5, 2019), adapted by Haj from Edmond Rostand, a comedy about an impressive poet, playwright, and swordsman whose grotesquely large nose keeps him from pursuing love. Haj will also direct.
Following will be Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses (April 13-May 19, 2019), a modern retelling of the myths of Ovid, featuring an ensemble of actors performing figures from Greek mythology to share stories of transformation around a large pool of water onstage. Zimmerman will direct.
Next up will be Guys and Dolls (June 22-Aug. 25, 2019), with book by Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows, and music and lyrics by Frank Loesser, a classic musical about a gang of underground gamblers in New York City.
Following will be the world premiere of Lynn Nottage’s Floyd’s (July 27-Aug. 25, 2019), commissioned by the Guthrie. The play, a companion piece to Sweat, is about a motley crew of ex-cons who work as line cooks at a diner in Reading, Pennsylvania. Kate Whoriskey will direct.
In addition to the mainstage subscription season, the Guthrie will present the 44th annual production of A Christmas Carol (Nov. 13-Dec. 29), adapted by Crispin Whittell from Charles Dickens. Lauren Keating will direct.
Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, brings classic and contemporary plays and musicals to Minneapolis.
