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OFFENDING THE AUDIENCE
January 21 - February 23 at The Flea

The Flea Theater (Jim Simpson, Artistic Director/Carol Ostrow, Producing Director) will present a revival of Peter Handke’s OFFENDING THE AUDIENCE. It will be directed by Jim Simpson featuring a cast of 22 members of The Bats, the resident acting ensemble at The Flea. Performances begin January 21st with opening night scheduled for Thursday, January 31st at 9:00 p.m.

At the top of OFFENDING THE AUDIENCE, a group of actors take the stage and announce that there will be no play. They are not characters. The stage does not represent another place. Time passes as it does in real life. There is no illusion. The audience is asked to abandon every expectation, to be the subject of the actors’ gaze the way that they are the subject of ours. So what will happen on stage? OFFENDING THE AUDIENCE combines caustic humor with deeply meaningful notions about theatre, life and death.

The cast of Bats features: Raniah Al-Sayed, Ivory Aquino, Felipe Bonilla, Jon Cage, Jaime Carrillo, Dan Cozzens, Yung-I Chang, Erwin Falcon, Drew Hildebrand, Emily Hyberger, Alexis Macnab, Bobby Moreno, Chance Mullen, Lisa Pettersson, Rachael Richman, Erin Roth, John Russo, Sarah Sakaan, Annie Scott, Sarah Silk, Ronald Washington, and Jeff Worden.

Born in Austria in 1942, Peter Handke is one of the most important literary figures of contemporary Austria. In addition to plays, he has written poems, novels, essays, screenplays and directed film. He gained fame among theatergoers with his highly controversial 1966 play OFFENDING THE AUDIENCE . His other plays include Kaspar (nominated for Play of the Year by Theater Heute), My Foot My Tutor, Prophecy, Self-Accusation and Cries for Help. Handke most recently made international headlines in 2006 when he was awarded Dusseldorf's Heinrich Heine Prize, but the award was revoked over Handke's perceived public support for Slobodan Milosevic.

The Flea Theater is one of New York's leading off-off-Broadway companies, and has been honored with a Special Drama Desk Award, Obie Awards and an Otto Award for political theater. The Flea has presented over 80 plays and numerous dance and live music performances since its inception in 1996. Past productions include the premieres of Anne Nelson's The Guys, four plays by A.R. Gurney (Post Mortem, O Jerusalem, Screenplay, and Mrs. Farnsworth), Mac Wellman's Cellophane and Two September, Roger Rosenblatt's Ashley Montana Goes Ashore..., Elizabeth Swados' JABU, Karen Finley's Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman, Yussef El Guindi's Back of the Throat, Julian Sheppard's Los Angeles, Adam Rapp's Bingo with the Indians and Will Eno’s Oh, The Humanity...

OFFENDING THE AUDIENCE runs runs January 21 - February 23. Performance times vary. The Flea Theater, is located at 41 White Street (between Broadway & Church Streets -- accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,Q,W,6,J,M,Z to Canal or 1 to Franklin Street). Tickets are $10. For a complete performance calendar and ticketing, visit theflea.org or call 212-352-3101.