Major Barbara: The Theatre of a Two-headed Calf adds Japanese Kabuki to Shaw's drama

La MaMa E.T.C. presents The Theatre of a Two-headed Calf's Kabuki-influenced production of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara, at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre from the 12 - 29 Jan 2006

Major Barbara: What happens when George Bernard Shaw, theater's old-time renegade, meets Japanese Kabuki? Will it be a fight to the death or can these these two disparate theatrical forms peacefully and productively co-exist? In this work, The Theatre of a Two-headed Calf melds together the dense political rhetoric of Shaw with the physical and vocal stylizations of Japanese Kabuki.

Brooke O'Harra (Director) believes the infusion of Kabuki's aesthetics of cruelty adds a particular poignance to Shaw's play, in which Barbara, a Major in the Salvation Army, argues for soul-saving and redemption, while her father, a rich arms manufacturer, argues for the necessity of man's murderous, freedom-giving abilities.

This play was developed simultaneously with a Kabuki Piece by Chikamatsu, The Drum of the Waves of Horikawa.'

Major Barbara cast features: Heidi Schreck (Barbara), Tina Shepard (Lady Britomart), Mike Mikos (Adolphus Cusins), David Brooks (Peter Shirley / Charles Lomax), Bob Jaffe (Undershaft), Tatiana Pavela (Rummy Mitchens), Johnnny Klein (Snobby Price), Nadia Scherazade Mahdi (Bill Walker), Tom Lipinski (Stephen Undershaft), Rosemary Quinn (Ms. Baines) and, Laryssa Husiak and Derrick Karg in ensemble parts.

The production has set designs by Peter Ksander and Justin Townsend, with music composed by Brendan Connelly