The Hunchback Variations (2015)by Mickle Maher
Performances
Apr 10, 2015 -
May 2, 2015
"Suddenly a distant sound is heard, coming as if out of the sky, like the sound of a string snapping, slowly and sadly dying away."- Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard
Cast & Personnel
Director
Cast
Scenic Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Sound Design
Prop Design
Stage Manager
The Play
The extraordinary Mickle Maher is back! Maher has become a Houston favorite a result of Catastrophic productions of his plays The Strangerer, Spirits to Enforce, There Is A Happiness That Morning Is, and the world premiere of The Pine.
In The Hunchback Variations, noted composer Ludwig Van Beethoven and noted hunchback Quasimodo team up to chair a panel on sound design. More specifically they are explaining their fruitless efforts to create the impossible cue: that baffling sound effect described at the end of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. The panel follows the pair’s frustrated efforts, complicated by the fact that they are both quite deaf.
Thematically, the play explores the creative impulse and the question of artistic endeavor. Is it a noble thing to continue to try in the face of inevitable failure or is it better to simply remain silent?
The Playwright
MICKLE MAHER ’s plays have appeared Off-Broadway and around the world, and have been supported by grants from the NEA, the Rockefeller MAP fund, and Creative Capital. They include There is a Happiness That Morning Is; Song About Himself; An Apology for the Course and Outcome of Certain Events Delivered by Doctor John Faustus on This His Final Evening; The Hunchback Variations; The Strangerer; Spirits to Enforce; Cyrano (translator), The Cabinet; Lady Madeline; The Pine; An Actor Prepares (an adaptation of Stanislavsky’s seminal book); and Small Ball. He is a cofounder of Chicago’s Theater Oobleck, and has taught playwriting and related subjects at the University of Chicago, Columbia College, and Northwestern University. His plays are published by Hope and Nonthings.
It Is Magic marks the 11th of Maher’s plays to be produced by Catastrophic, making him the company’s most oft-produced playwright.
In the Media
The Hunchback Variations: An Absurdist Comedy With Fascinating Oddness
April 14, 2015 |
Houston Press
| D.L. Groover
Elusive sound is more than mere noise in ‘Hunchback’
April 14, 2015 |
Houston Chronicle
| Everett Evans
The Hunchback Variations – Review
April 13, 2015 |
Applause Meter
| Jessica Goldman
