Touchstone Theatre presents guest artist Brett Keyser in the one-man show, Darwinii: The Comeuppance of Man. The show performs October 4 and 5 at 8pm at the Charles A. Brown Ice House in Bethlehem, PA in conjunction with Ice House Tonight.
Darwinii is scripted by Glen Berger, a two-time Emmy Award winner and New York-based playwright whose work has included writing the book for the Broadway musical Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark.
The plays sole character, Cristobal, has stolen the original Charles Darwin manuscripts from rare book libraries around the world because he is convinced he is the great-great-great-great-bastard-grandson of the father of Natural Selection. Obsessed with his possible lineage, Cristobal is on a manic quest; along the way, he digresses into a fresh and outrageous take on the evolution of man and the inherent human need to understand his place in society.
"Were serious about the questions were tackling," Keyser says. "Where do we come from' What are the mechanisms that make us what we are' When we look at ourselves like this, we cant help but laugh, not frivolously but because we become aware of the human comedy."
Originally from the region, Keyser grew up in Revere, Pennsylvania in Upper Bucks County and attended Palisades High School where he first became involved in theatre productions. Now Keyser is a Catskill-based performance artist/director associated with Nightjar Apothecary and North American Cultural Laboratory (NACL).
Keyser adds, "I dont have a message or agenda to push. I make theatre because of the potential for engendering some social spark that will bring something to life which didnt exist before. Something that will be gone before anyone leaves the theatre."
Darwinii: The Comeuppance of Man was commissioned by and first produced at The American Philosophical Society (APS) Museum in 2009. It was funded in part by The Pennsylvania Humanities Council. Locally, Darwinii is supported by First Generation, Touchstones season sponsor, and Touchstone media sponsor WDIY. The Ice House Tonight series is supported in part by The Eastern PA Arts Alliance.
Darwinii: The Comeuppance of Man plays October 4 and 5, 2013 at 8:00pm, at the Charles A. Brown Ice House, 56 River St. Bethlehem, PA 18018. Tickets are $25 or $15 for students and seniors, with group rates available on request.
Tickets may be purchased at (610) 867-1689 or online at www.touchstone.org