"titillates...with the inward war we must all wage for our right to be deviant, to find pleasure and joy,.... Word for Word once again shows that page and stage can be friendlier bedfellows than you might have thought." —SF Chronicle, Lily Janiak
A Z SPACE and Word for Word Production:
SMUT: An unseemly story
(The GREENING of Mrs. DOnaldson)
BY ALAN BENNETT
May 10-June 11, 2017
at Z BELOW
"...hilarious..." —SF Examiner, Leslie Katz
"...very performative, over-the-top boot knocking..." —SF Magazine, Ian A. Stewart
"Results are sublime....riotously funny" —Bay Area Reporter, Richard Dodds
One of England’s finest and most loved writers, Alan Bennett, explores the uncomfortable and tragicomic gap between people’s public appearance and their private desires in this tender and surprising story. In The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson, a recently bereaved widow finds interesting ways to supplement her income by performing as a patient for medical students, and renting out her spare room. Quiet, middle-class, and middle-aged, Mrs. Donaldson will soon discover that she rather enjoys role-play at the hospital, and the irregular and startling entertainment provided by her tenants.A master storyteller dissects a very English form of secrecy with this story of the unexpected in otherwise apparently ordinary lives.
Winner - BACC Award for Entire Production (under 100 seats)
Directed by Amy Kossow
Producer: HARLYN | Associate Producers: Bruce Colman, Shelly Osborne
ADAPTED TO THE STAGE BY WORD FOR WORD PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY
Smut: Stories by Alan Bennett a Picador paperback (Farrar Strauss and Giroux Publishers)
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SPECIAL EVENTS AROUND THE SHOW:
Join us for a talkback with the cast and director on Sunday, June 4 following the performance! Click on the dates to purchase tickets.
Party with the Cast of Smut on Wednesday, June 7, at an '80's Dance Party in Z Space Lobby after the show at 9PM.
Suggested donation at the door | Full no-host bar.
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This show contains suggestive material which may not be suitable for children. Parental Guidance is suggested.
Running time: 1 hour 30 min, no intermission
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PRESS
About the author: Alan Bennett
photo: Antony Crolla
Alan Bennett (author) studied at Exeter College, Oxford. Bennett co-wrote and starred in Beyond the Fringe, a satirical review, along with Dudley Moore, Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller, at the Edinburgh Festival in 1960. Later the show travelled to the West End and to New York. After this, he started writing for the stage, and later, plays for television. His work focuses on the everyday and the mundane; on people with typically British characteristics and obsessions.
His first stage play was Forty Years On. Other well-known stage plays include People, The Habit of Art, Untold Stories, Kafka's Dick, The Wind in The Willows, and The Madness of George III. Bennett’s phenomenally successful play The History Boys won the Tony for Best Play 2006, as well as the Olivier in the same year. Alan Bennett has also written for film, including The Lady in The Van, A Private Function, Prick Up Your Ears, and The Madness of King George, for which he was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation
