About the show
In a 2018 poll by critics of The New York Times, An Octoroon was ranked the second-greatest American play of the past 25 years. When it premiered, it was called “this decade’s most eloquent statement on race in America today.” (The New York Times). Dion Boucicault’s 1859 melodrama The Octoroon, about a man who scandalously falls for a slave on his Louisiana plantation, helped fan the flames of the American Civil War. The dazzling African American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins has torn apart and rebuilt the original text as a towering, immersive and wildly funny theatrical experience.
International guest director Timothy Douglas, who has helmed more than 100 productions across major American theatres, makes his Australian debut.
Cast, creative/production team, tickets and run times will be announced soon.
Timothy Douglas has directed over 100 plays, musicals, and opera. Recent credits include The Color Purple Signature Theatre (Helen Hayes Award for best musical), the U.S. premiere of Natasha Gordon’s Nine Night Roundhouse Theatre, Champion Boston Lyric Opera, Blue New Orleans Opera, the premiere of Something Happened in Our Town Children’s Theatre Company, the U.S. premiere of Tristan Bernays’ adaptation of Frankenstein Classic Stage Company Off-Broadway, and the Great Theatre of China’s production/tour of Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced.
He has made productions for American Conservatory Theater, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Playhouse, Denver Center, Downstage New Zealand, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Juilliard School, Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, Milwaukee Rep, Portland Center Stage, Red Bull, Steppenwolf, among many others, including Yale Rep with the premiere of August Wilson’s Radio Golf. Upcoming; the premieres of Safronia Lyric Opera of Chicago, and She Who Dared Chicago Opera Theater. timothydouglas.org
Uses caricatures and racial comedy to challenge societal conventions. It features murders, racial violence, and obscene language, including racial slurs. Advice may change.
This production is supported by the Keir Foundation.
