Plays

Watch Joe Dowling discuss the mainstage plays in the new 2009-2010 season.

When We Are Married

When We Are Married
July 04 - August 30, 2009 (Opening July 10)
Wurtele Thrust Stage
An accomplished British novelist, essayist and playwright, J.B. Priestley is perhaps best known for his play An Inspector Calls. Written in 1938, When We Are Married remains an audience favorite today.
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PHÈDRE

PHÈDRE
July 08 - July 09, 2009
McGuire Proscenium Stage
For the first time in its history, the UK's National Theatre is broadcasting live performances of plays in high definition into other theaters worldwide. The Guthrie will be the exclusive Twin Cities venue to re-broadcast the high-definition screening in this exciting international partnership.
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Ella

Ella
July 21 - September 06, 2009 (Opening July 24)
McGuire Proscenium Stage
Ella explodes onto the stage in a torrent of jazzy passion, weaving together the music and life of vocal legend Ella Fitzgerald. Her story is told in the fashion most suitable to such an artist: through the passion of her own music.
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The Importance of Being Earnest

September 12 - November 08, 2009 (Opening September 17)
Wurtele Thrust Stage

Oscar Wilde’s masterpiece returns to the Guthrie’s thrust stage more than 10 years since the Star Tribune hailed Dowling’s last production as "an entertaining romp!" The Importance of Being Earnest remains an audience favorite for its delicious wit, hidden identities, and silly games of keeping up appearances that aren’t always what they seem.

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Super Monkey

September 17 - October 04, 2009 (Opening September 19)
Dowling Studio

Highly visual, physical and comic, Super Monkey is a world premiere dramatic-comedy created by award-winning artist Jon Ferguson and an ensemble of some of the leading physical performers in the Twin Cities.

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Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater

October 08 - October 18, 2009 (Opening October 09)
Dowling Studio

Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater returns to the Guthrie to present the world premiere of a new work inspired by the poetry of Leonard Cohen and the music of Antony and the Johnsons.

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Faith Healer

October 17 - December 06, 2009 (Opening October 23)
McGuire Proscenium Stage

Guthrie Director Joe Dowling will return to his acting roots to play the title role in this powerful play about faith healer Frank Hardy, his wife Grace (Sally Wingert) and talent manager Teddy (Raye Birk). Haunted by shared memories, each character relays their own version of a single story and how they are ultimately broken by a final, fatal event.

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The Walworth Farce at the Walker Art Center

October 21 - October 25, 2009

It’s 11 o’clock in the morning in a council flat on the Walworth Road in London. In two hours’ time, as is normal, three Irish men will have consumed six cans of Harp, 15 crackers with spreadable cheese, 10 pink biscuit wafers and one oven-cooked chicken with a strange blue sauce. In two hours’ time, as is normal, five people will have been killed.

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Northern Lights/Southern Cross

October 22 - November 08, 2009 (Opening October 24)
Dowling Studio

More than 30 actors, dancers and singers will come together in this unique collaboration among Kevin Kling and these two unique theater companies who share a mission in their work with artists with disabilities. The result is an amazing story about healing on a personal, cultural and global level.

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A Christmas Carol

November 19 - December 31, 2009 (Opening November 21)
Wurtele Thrust Stage
The Guthrie’s annual holiday tradition continues in the 35th Anniversary production!
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Romeo and Juliet

January 09 - January 31, 2010
McGuire Proscenium Stage

After the phenomenal success of last year’s co-production of Henry V, The Acting Company and the Guthrie are partnering for a second consecutive year for this national tour.

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Singled Out: A Festival of Emerging Artists

January 14 - January 24, 2010
Dowling Studio

This two-week festival brings together local companies and artists to present the best work of the Twin Cities theater scene.

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Macbeth

January 30 - April 03, 2010 (Opening February 05)
Wurtele Thrust Stage

With action that moves at the rapid pace of a thriller as the mystery of Macbeth unfolds, this tragedy reveals Shakespeare at his storytelling best. Loaded with contemporary resonances, Macbeth’s quest for glory exposes the politics of power and the corruption power breeds.

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Yellow Face

February 04 - February 21, 2010 (Opening February 06)
Dowling Studio

In this head-spinning comedy, playwright Hwang turns his own travails into humorous insights, warning us that good intentions do not necessarily make the world go ’round.

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Brief Encounter

February 11 - April 03, 2010 (Opening February 12)
McGuire Proscenium Stage

Brief Encounter will play the Guthrie as one of just three exclusive stops in the U.S. following its critically acclaimed run in London. Using the unforgettable 1946 film by Noël Coward as the inspiration, Brief Encounter is a theatrically engaging blend of film, theater, comedy, songs and beguiling romance.

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Coward's Women

March 30 - April 03, 2010 (Opening March 30)
Dowling Studio

Featuring some of Noël Coward’s best-known songs and lesser known works, this musical review provides a glimpse at this brilliant man of the theater and a few of the women who influenced him.

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M. Butterfly

April 17 - June 06, 2010 (Opening April 23)
Wurtele Thrust Stage

Tony Award-winning and Pulitzer-nominated M. Butterfly traces lines of race, gender and power through love and deception. French diplomat Rene Gallimard is dazzled by "the perfect woman," Song Liling, a performer in the Peking opera. Yet as he seeks power over her, he finds far more than the submissive leading lady he wanted.

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Dollhouse

May 22 - July 11, 2010 (Opening May 28)
McGuire Proscenium Stage

Nora seems to have it all: a successful husband, three adorable children and a beautiful home in Lincoln Park. But what looks like the perfect life is woefully incomplete, propped up by dark secrets and bitter betrayals. This contemporary adaptation brings Ibsen’s classic into our century with a sharp eye for social satire and moments of dark comedy coupled with powerful human drama.

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She Stoops to Conquer

July 03 - August 21, 2010 (Opening July 09)
Wurtele Thrust Stage

More than 10 years since the Guthrie last staged this uproariously funny comedy – considered by many to be the original situation comedy – Guthrie Director Joe Dowling will direct Goldsmith’s lighthearted comedy of manners on the Guthrie’s thrust stage. Peppered with terrific characters and filled with music, She Stoops to Conquer’s mistaken identities and rich humor promise a flirtatious summer extravaganza.

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A Streetcar Named Desire

August 14 - October 03, 2010 (Opening August 20)
McGuire Proscenium Stage

The unraveling of Blanche DuBois plays out within a lily-laced atmosphere of heated passion and pulsing sweat in Tennessee William’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. Through its tumult of fantasies, reality and impassioned speeches, A Streetcar Named Desire paints a fascinating tragedy of a woman who struggles boldly against a harsh world, creating a night of compelling, intensely emotional theater.

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