2003/2004 Season

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West Coast Premiere
by Melissa James Gibson
Directed by Ruff Yeager

Three young urban failures navigate a world of quicksand needs and fickle urges, where there exists a vast landscape between what is intended and what is construed, and where ordering Chinese food is a deeply complicated matter.

Reviews

San Diego Union-Tribune
San Diego CityBEAT
San Diego Playbill
sdtheatrescene.com
San Diego Reader

Phaedra in Delirium

West Coast Premiere
by Susan Yankowitz
directed by Kirsten Brandt & David Tierney

Phaedra is in bed. She won't get up. Something is eating at her. Is it her obsession with her aging body? Is she afraid of becoming sexually invisible? Or could it have something to do with her virile stepson sleeping at the end of the hall? Acclaimed playwright, Susan Yankowitz (author of A Knife in the Heart) brings a poetic riff on the ageless tragedy of illicit love.

Medea, Queen of Colchester

World Premiere
by Marianne McDonald
directed by Kirsten Brandt & David Tierney

A Cape Town transvestite expelled from her homeland for betraying her family for love is now the hottest thing on the Las Vegas strip. But, when her lover leaves her to marry the beautiful daughter of a Casino owner, Medea is driven to avenge his betrayal the only way a "woman" knows how. From Marianne McDonald, award-winning author of the critically acclaimed Trojan Women, comes this tale of passion and sacrifice.

Reviews

San Diego Union-Tribune (feature)

Nu

World Premiere
conceived and directed by Kirsten Brandt & Jessa Watson

Hints of light
What happened to my body?
        Chorus of soloists
        I didn't see you standing there
The Beasts inside
End the misery, end the pain

All tied to the mysteries.

Sledgehammer brings you a world premiere theatrical event. Three interrelated yet separate stories told entirely without words.

NU—the French word for "naked" or "nude"—is comprised of three independent yet interrelated stories told with no spoken dialogue. Each tale revolves around a life unraveling.

Mr. Phosphorescent. A man wakes to discover grotesque absurdity in his mundane existence.
Traveling Echoes. A woman dives recklessly into the unknown, leaving behind a painful past for possible ecstasy.
Wintering. Haunting images collide with colossal force as a lost soul makes the mortal choice.

Macbeth

By William Shakespeare
directed by Kirsten Brandt

When a brave warrior is given a premonition of future glory, the flames of ambition are ignited, propelling him on a journey of moral destruction. Driven by the diabolical prodding of his wife, the Macbeths take over the country only to fall victims to their own guilty consciences.

With a nine-person ensemble, Sledgehammer's production will create a timeless landscape where witches are a manifestation of the evil found in man, and men & women must fight their innermost desires or be controlled by them.

Reviews:

San Diego Union-Tribune Critic's Choice