Naked
New Adaptation of Pirandello Classic Premieres
March 11 at The Gene Frankel Theater

The Themantics Group, a new company of theater professionals dedicated to producing a season of projects around a particular theme, presents their inaugural production, a new translation of Luigi Pirandello’s Naked, beginning March 11th at The Gene Frankel Theater. Adapted by Nina daVinci Nichols and directed by Blake Lawrence, the production stars Gerrianne Raphael (whose Broadways credits include Aldonza in Man of La Mancha, Milk and Honey, Hallelujah Baby!, and Threepenny Opera) and Timothy Warmen (whose Broadway credits include Michael Crawford’s understudy in Dance of The Vampires, The Who’s Tommy, Side Show and Jekyll & Hyde).

Naked is a disturbing and erotic media-driven psychological drama. It is the story of Ersilia Drei, a nanny whose charge dies while in her care. The tragic incident leads her to be fired, jilted by her lover, become a prostitute and attempt suicide. When a highly romanticized version of her life makes headlines, four men -- a newspaper reporter, a best-selling writer who rescues her, her faithless lover, and her former employer -- pursue Ersilia, demanding she account for these lies. A web of seduction and deception unravels as we are presented with constantly shifting versions of what happened.

Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) is best known for his seminal 1921 drama Six Characters in Search of An Author. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1934. Naked was written in 1922 and originally produced on Broadway in 1926. The Themantics Group’s translation of Naked is by Nina daVinci Nichols, a novelist and a professor of English at Rutgers University.

In addition to Raphael and Warmen, the cast features Peter Macklin, Robert Harriell, Margaret Nichols and Tarissa Day with sets by Jen Varbalow, lighting by Carrie Wood and sound design by Joanna Lynn Staub.

The Themantics Group was founded in 2002 by Jay Aubrey and Blake Lawrence after the overwhelming success of their revival of Mark Ravenhill’s Shopping and Fucking. The theme for their inaugural season: Exploitation in the Media. For more information visit www.themantics.org.

According to producer Jay Aubrey, "So often news items about tragedies or personal misfortunes are sensationalized and dissected ad infinitum in the media today. But this is not a new trend. Naked was originally written in 1922, and it's circumstances are almost identical to the recent headline-grabber "British Nanny" Louise Woodward. Through Naked, we want to explore how media exploitation affects those personally involved, those whose stories are aggrandized in the press, and vilified in the public eye."

Naked runs March 11 - April 4, Thursday - Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 7:00 pm (except Sunday, April 4, which is at 3:00 pm). The Gene Frankel Theater is located at 24 Bond Street (between Lafayette and Bowery -- accessible from the B,D,F&Q at Broadway/Lafayette and the 6 at Bleeker). Tickets are $15. For reservations call Smarttix at 212-868-4444 or online at SmartTix.com.