A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Kirche, Küche, Kinder (An Outrage for the Stage)

Short Play, Dark Comedy  /  3w, 3m

A part of the collection The Traveling Companion and Other Plays.

Kirche, Küche, Kinder (An Outrage for the Stage)

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3w, 3m
  • Duration
    Duration
    60 minutes (1 hour)
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary

Three giant turning screens in primary colors allow the stage to become the Kirche (church) or the Küche (kitchen) while the gigantic "daisy of daytime" and "moon-vines" mark the hour. Miss Rose. an organist; the First Lutheran Minister of the Island of Staten, known as "Papa;" the ninety-year-old and pregnant Fraulein Haussmitzenschlogger; the adult "Kinder" lewdly dressed as children; and "The Man" (a blond young hustler in leather pants. and self-proclaimed descendant of "the old kings of Ireland") populate this bizarre and bawdy play written in the style of the theater of the ridiculous. With its vaudevillian humor, cartoon sets and characters, ribald takes on religion and marriage, and sentimental Irish ballads, this is one of Williams' more chaotic mixtures of the comic and the dreadful. Slapstick and brutality intertwine to create a breakthrough piece of performance art.

A part of the collection The Traveling Companion and Other Plays.

History

Kirche, Kurche, Kinder premiered in performance by the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theater in New York City in September 1979 at the Bouwerie Lane Theater under the direction of Eve Adamson.

THE MAN
MISS ROSE
THE WIFE
THE LUTERAN MINISTER
FRAULIEN HAUSSMITZENSCHLOGGER
THE KINDER
  • Setting A room suggestive of a "High Church."
  • Duration 60 minutes (1 hour)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $75 per performance

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Authors

Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) explored passion with daring honesty and forged a poetic theatre of raw psychological insight that shattered conventional proprieties and transformed the American stage. The autobiographical The Glass Menagerie brought what Mr. Williams called “ ...
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