The title character of George Sand’s GABRIEL is passionate, athletic, nobly-minded, and the heir to both a principality and a secret: Gabriel is female, raised as a boy since birth. The young prince’s discovery of this secret plot to defraud the family’s lawful heir forces a choice that strikes at the heart of Gabriel’s sense of self: to ignore the voice of conscience and hold on to the rights and privileges of a man, or to live as a woman and sacrifice everything.
Head Trick’s production of Sand’s feminist parable, performed by a cast of female and non-binary actors, pits Gabriel against criminals and princes, the fantastic and nightmarish world of Carnival, and the pervasive social inequality from which even love and friendship are not safe. The company will hold post-show talkbacks with special guests to discuss the play, its feminist and trans themes, and the development process.
GABRIEL opens Head Trick’s 2017-18 season, which responds to the political climate not with stories of government tyranny or business corruption, but with plays by, and about, the people marginalized by policies and rhetoric that repress difference. “Women and minorities aren’t a modern invention”, says Head Trick’s artistic director Rebecca Maxfield, whose company focuses on classic plays. “We’ve always been here, and in planning a season with the political situation at the forefront of our minds, Head Trick is choosing to put those voices and stories out there.”
Head Trick Theatre presents:
GABRIEL
By George Sand (Aurore Dupin)
Translated by Gay Smith (Manifold)
Directed by Rebecca Maxfield
With:
Nina Carbone
Sandra Laub
Ashley Macamaux
Destinee Mangum
Sissy O’Hara
Christine Pavao
Morgan Potter
Kelly Robertson
Sarah Sinclair
Amy Thompson
Rebecca Tung
PERFORMANCES
Friday, December 8, 7pm
Saturday, December 9, 7pm
Sunday, December 10, 2pm
Thursday, December 14, 7pm
Friday, December 15, 7pm
Saturday, December 16, 7pm
Sunday, December 17, 2pm
AS220 Black Box | 95 Empire St. | Providence, RI 02903
Performances will be followed by special talkbacks with invited guests
Tickets $15, preorder online with Brown Paper Tickets (http://headtrickgabriel.brownpapertickets.com/) or cash/card at door. Free at door with Brown/RISD ID.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (1804-1876), who wrote as George Sand, is known for her unconventional lifestyle as much as for her writing. By adopting male dress, Sand shocked fashionable society, but was also able to experience firsthand a level of day-to-day freedom unavailable to most women. Her interest in women’s rights influenced her novels and plays about the struggle for freedom and idealistic love against the constraints a fundamentally gender-unequal society places on women.
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