What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1495137
BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette A t the end of "Survival of the Unfit," you won't walk out of Arkansas Public Theatre laughing and singing. This isn't "Little Shop of Horrors." But there is something inhuman — vile, grotesque, maybe even monstrous — growing in the little suburban household of playwright Oren Safdie's imagination. It deserves to be seen, explored — and perhaps a lesson learned that might keep it from proliferating in other households elsewhere. What that lesson is is something you'll have to help decide. "I love the roller coaster ride this play provides for actors and the audience," says director Ed McClure. Safdie is an old friend of APT, introduced to Northwest Arkansas because his father, Moshe Safdie, designed Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. "Survival of the Unfit" is a world premiere, the third of Safdie's shows to open on the APT stage. The unhappy household in question is made up of Shirley, her husband John and their only son Samuel. As we step into this particular evening, everything is in an uproar because Samuel has invited a date home to meet Mom and Dad. Mallory has been warned about Shirley's "biting wit," but even a trained therapist can't be prepared for the dysfunction served up at this dinner table. "Shirley is a very complex person," says actress Terry Vaughan, who comes to the APT stage with decades of experience in New York. "She is a fierce, domineering, strong-willed, successful woman who runs her household with an iron fist and bluntly expresses exactly what she thinks and feels without any 'polite' buffers. "She is incessant," Vaughan goes on. "She does what she does because she believes it is best for everyone. However, 'hurt people hurt people,' and Shirley leaves a trail of blood behind her from all of the wounded individuals she bludgeons everywhere she goes." John, says actor Tim Gilster, "is a poet, husband and a father. He is a great positive force on this earth. Some might say that John is self-involved and overly flamboyant, but I think it adds to his charm." Gilster is also Vaughan's husband, and the couple recently worked together on "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" for their own theater company, Smokehouse Players. "My husband and I are always on the lookout for compelling scripts with good roles for us oldies," Vaughan says. "We were very excited when we read March 19-25, 2023 What's up! 5 Faq 'Survival of the Unfit' WHEN — 8 p.m. March 24-25; 2 p.m. March 26; again March 30-31 and April 1-2 WHERE — Arkansas Public Theatre at the Victory in Rogers COST — $25-$50 INFO — arkansaspublictheatre. org FyI Meet The Playwright Playwright Oren Safdie will be guest of honor at the open- ing night of "Survival of the Unfit" on March 24 at Arkansas Public Theatre. Safdie's "Checks & Balances" made its world premiere in 2012 at APT, then Rogers Little Theatre. Also on the APT stage was "Things to Do in Munich" in 2018. Safdie will be featured in the NWADG's Sunday Profiles section March 26. See RLT Page 37 'Fun' In Dysfunctional safdie dramedy makes debut on apt stage The evening progresses from uncomfortable to cataclysmic in "survival of the unfit on stage at 8 p.m. March 24-april 2 at arkansas public theatre at the Victory in rogers." (courtesy photo/chad Wigington for apt) ROGeRS