M
urder, mayhem and poetry. Award-winning, Palisadian playwright Murray Mednick brings his unique sensibility to the hair-raising, sometimes violent, and often hilarious exploits of medieval poet François Villon in a world premiere production Villon.
Employing his signature blend of poetic lyricism and vaudevillian wordplay, Mednick follows the 15th century poet and his gang of bandits, vagabond priests and swordsmen-courtiers through the treacherous forests of medieval France.
“Villon was a tremendous contradiction,” says Mednick, who is careful to note that his play is an homage and a theater riff rather than a straight biography. “He was plucked out of the gutter and educated in the Church and at the University of Paris, only to become a bandit and a murderer. He was a Catholic scholar who could write great religious poetry alongside the bawdiest of ballads. He was pardoned by the King because his poetry was so magnificent.”
Mednick, a pioneer of the Off and Off-Off-Broadway movements in the ‘60s and ‘70s and playwright-in-residence for Theater Genesis, wrote The Hawk, The Hunter, Sand, Are You Lookin’ and The Deer Kill (1970 OBIE Award for Outstanding Play).
He is the recipient of a Career Achievement Award from the LA Weekly, an Ovation Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to Los Angeles Theater from the L.A. Stage Alliance, a Local Hero Award from Backstage West, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle’s Margaret Harford Award for Sustained Excellence in Theater.
Villon opens for press on Feb. 15 and continues through March 23. Performances take place Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 7 p.m.
Tickets are $30. There will be two preview performances, on Thursday, Feb. 13 and Friday, Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025.
For reservations and information, call (310) 477-2055 ext. 2 or go to www.PaduaPlaywrights.org.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
