Scena's 2004/05 season opens brings four new productions and one revival to Washington DC, while three productions will tour internationally.

Ivona, Princess of Burgundy - Scena's opening production this season - celebrates the 100th birthday of Polish master playwright and novelist Witold Gombrowicz (Sept. 9 - Oct. 3, Warehouse Theater). Following its Washington debut, Ivona travels to the 2004 Gombrowicz Festival in Lublin, Poland. Scena's touring production, supported by the Polish Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, is part of a year long celebration of "The Year of Gombrowicz."
Ivona is set in a court replete with intrigues and decadent aristocrats. Through sheer idleness and perversity, the playboy Prince Philip selects as his fiancée the hapless, grotesque Ivona. In the ensuing clash of "forms," how can order be restored? A master of form (and deformity), maturity (and immaturity!), Gombrowicz was, until recent times, a literary outsider. A Polish aristocrat marooned in Argentina at the outbreak of World War II, he did not return to Europe until the 1960s, shortly before his death in 1969. The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe set the stage for Gombrowicz rediscovery. The works of his youth and Argentine years - novels Ferdyduke, Pornographia, and Cosmos and plays Ivona, Operetta, The Marriage, and History - now hold a place of the highest rank in Poland's literary canon.

Don't miss out on Scena's production of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of The House of Usher - first seen by Washington audiences in Scena's 2003 season - opening at the Friends of the Italian Opera, Berlin, Germany, on October 11!

New York playwright and actor Wallace Shawn's The Fever follows in its first Washington revival. Directed by Robert McNamara and featuring actor Christopher Henley (artistic director of the Washington Shakespeare Company), The Fever opens at the Warehouse Theater on November 21 and runs through Jan 3.
The Fever is Wallace Shawn's portrayal of first world guilt in a third world country. Alone and sick in his hotel room, a pampered traveler struggles to come to terms with the inequality. Neither rationalizations, explanations, nor the lies he tells himself suffice to offer comfort. This brilliant black comedy comes from the star of Uncle Vanya on 42nd Street and author of My Dinner with André and Aunt Dan and Lemon.

Scena's third production of the 2004/05 season will be the Washington premiere of hit Irish playwright Martin McDonough's The Lonesome West. Directed by Robert McNamara, it will feature Washington actors Eric Lucas and Mark Rhea (Keegan Theatre's artistic director) as two brothers living alone in their father's house after his recent death. The Lonesome West is presented in association with the Embassy of Ireland and the Irish Arts Festival 2005, opening on February 25 and running through April 3 at the Warehouse Theater.
Martin McDonough is internationally known for his West End and Broadway hits The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan, and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. In The Lonesome West he continues his darkly comic depiction of rural Ireland, creating a petty version of the story of Cain and Abel, in which two brothers are unable to co-exist without resorting to violence over the simplest matters - potato chips and the Virgin Mary!

Next Scena takes a journey to the Ancient World (with a modern sensibility) in The Classics made easy, a trilogy of plays by Scena Artistic Director Robert McNamara. Part 1, Thersites (May 18 - June 19), is a wild ride through Homer's Illiad, as "the smallest and ugliest man in the Greek army" describes the true facts of the Trojan war. Carter Jahnke heads the cast directed by internationally noted Berlin director Gabriele Jakobi. Part 2, I Cyclops (June 1 - June 23), is a comic retelling of Book 9 of Homer's great epic poem The Odyssey, from the point of view of the monster Polyphemus as played by two time Helen Hayes Award nominee Brian Hemmingsen. Part 3, Gladiator (June 27 - July 17), presents an anonymous gladiator meditating upon his fate prior to greeting his fans in the Colosseum. Featuring Eric Lucas. The Classics Trilogy/Classics Made Easy runs in a rotating repertory, May 18 - July 17, at the Warehouse Theater Second Stage!

Finally, the long-awaited production of Aeschylus' powerful anti-war play The Persians will take place in Spring 2005. The Persians, in a modern version by Robert Auletta, shifts the actions from Persia to modern-day Iraq during the first Gulf War (1991). Plays by Auletta have been seen at the Yale Repertory Theater, the New York Public Theateer, and La Mama among others. His play adaptation of Ajax, directed by Peter Sellars, was performed at the Kennedy Center and in major European festivals. Scena's not-to-be missed production of the Persians opens July 16 and runs through August 14 at the Tivoli Theatre!