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Los Angeles Times: "RIVETING."
CRITIC'S CHOICE
"a haunting mix of humanism and anarchy…this riveting revival feels strangely acute…Written in 1958, 'Don't Look Now' turns Cold War panic literally on its head…Under the cagey eye of artistic director Chris Covics, a terrific ensemble finds the emotional point within absurdist doggerel…just try to look away before "Don't Look Now" reaches its memorable final image.
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LA CityBeat: "HAUNTING."
"...Unknown Theater certainly lives up to its name with Don't Look Now...Judging from Unknown artistic director Chris Covics's staging, it deserves more attention...a haunting vision of humanity...It's all very cool, man -- a vivid evocation of the Beat era nearly five decades later."
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Backstage West: "MIRACULOUS."
"Kudos to Covics for a miraculous feat."
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About Don't Look Now
Unknown Theater is pleased to announce a three-week extension of Don’t Look Now, a haunting Cold War era black comedy written by beat poet Kenneth Patchen. Tickets now available for January 4, 2007 through January 21, 2007! Unknown’s Artistic Director Chris Covics has earned critical and popular acclaim for intoxicating productions of unknown gems and puts his signature stamp on the topsy-turvy, beat-infused world of Don’t Look Now. Not to be missed, this critically acclaimed production features live improvisational jazz, beat poetry, and an upside down living room!
The Worthcrofts, your typical 1950s nuclear family, have suddenly found themselves standing on the ceiling of their living room – that’s right, on the ceiling. With the doors, windows, and phone out of reach, they desperately try to escape. Meanwhile, a bizarre vacuum that makes speech impossible, is gradually consuming the ability to be heard – forcing them to find a way to turn the world right side up before they are trapped forever in silence. With the help of a hypnotist, a jazz poet, and a man with a radioactive head, they soon realize that there is only one way out of this crazy predicament – to love one another.
In 1958, beat-poet Kenneth Patchen wrote Don’t Look Now during a physical respite from a debilitating spinal ailment that left him semi-paralyzed for much of his life. Momentarily free from the prison of his withering body, he saw his country in its own state of emotional paralysis, subsisting in the paranoid fear of nuclear terror. He saw people isolated and unable to reach out to one another on any level but the most superficial. The play, at once hilarious and tragic, is a desperate call for all of us to come together in love and appreciation for one another. Or, in his own words: “We must learn to love one another… if one man fails to believe, then there can be no faith in the world.” In 2007, as our country finds itself once again in the throws of terror and fear, the play, featuring live jazz and beat poetry, now holds as much resonance as it did when first staged nearly 50 years ago.
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