Oracle B*Sides in association with Odradek Theatre

Pains of Youth

by Ferdinand Bruckner
adapted by Martin Crimp
directed by Josh Altman

Admission is FREE in Public Access Theatre
Opens September 21, 2013
Through October 13, 2013
Friday, Saturday and Monday nights at 8PM, Sundays at 7PM.

Run time is 1hr 55 min with 1 intermission.

PAINS OF YOUTH explores adolescence through a steamy lens. Promiscuous, pitiless and bored, six sexually entangled medical students restlessly wander in and out of a boarding house, studying, drinking, taunting, and spying. Freder sets about savagely experimenting with the young, pretty maid, with half an eye on his former lover Desiree, a wild, disillusioned aristocrat. Petrell abandons Marie for the ruthless underdog Irene. Marie doesn’t waste any time weeping – Desiree wants her. This discontented post-war generation diagnose youth to be their sickness and do their best to destroy it. Bourgeois existence or suicide; there are no other options. Odradek’s production explores what it means to come of age in a world you didn’t expect to inherit. This uniquely private production investigates the violent point between childhood and adulthood, when we learn what life really asks of us. It reveals what happens in that anxious, awakening moment when we understand who we really are, and then, who we must become.

Odradek is an emerging storefront theatre company in Chicago with a mission to bring together, under one collective mind, an array of artists to create art that would otherwise be inconceivable. Odradek creates fresh productions that challenge the mind and tug at the heart by providing opportunities for new playwrights to see their work performed, never-heard-of musicians to turn-up their amps, and teams of designers to create imaginative landscapes.

The Cast
Daniel Desmarais as Petrell
Megan Chaperon as Lucy
Laura Lapidus as Marie
Kelsey Ann Wacker as Irena
Jonathen Wikholm as Alt
Kevin Duvall as Freder
Kaitlyn Majoy as Desiree

The creative team features Cait Chiou (Scenic Design), Michael Sater* (Lighting Design), Alyssa Beach* and Rachel Bonacquisti* (Props Design), and Graphic Design by Kat Quintan* and Jonathen Wikholm*. Tony Santiago^ is Stage Manager, Naomi Lindh* is Assistant Director, Reed Motz is Production Assistant, and Kevin McDonald is Dramaturg. The production is produced by Ashley-Marie Quijano* and Jonathen Wikholm*. David Boren^ is Director of Programming for Oracle, and Ben Fuchsen^ is Executive Producer.

* Denotes Odradek company members
^ Denotes Oracle Production company members