Upcoming in Seattle
Red Rover’s presentation of Patrimony opens May 5, 2022 for eight performances at 18th & Union Arts Space on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Duane Kelly’s play tells the story of a scared teenager with no father who is struggling as he seeks one. Terrified, his mother isn’t sure where to turn. The boy tries to enlist the help of an old imaginary friend. Secrets abound. Alma Davenport (co-founder of Brown Soul Productions) directs this premiere production.
Upcoming in Edinburgh
In August 2022 Red Rover is co-producing Duane's play Visiting Cezanne at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Edinburgh is the world's largest theatre festival, attracting half a million visitors. This production had been planned for the Fringe in 2020 and then in 2021, but the festival was curtailed those years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Visiting Cezanne, which premiered in Seattle in 2018, will be presented at Hill Street Theatre by theatre artists from Glasgow. It will run for 23 performances, August 5-28.
Another of Duane's plays, Enquiry Concerning Hereafter, was commissioned by the Edinburgh Business School for presentation at this year's Fringe. Enquiry is about the dear friendship between Enlightenment philosophers David Hume and Adam Smith. The play is being staged at Panmure House, where Smith lived in his later years. Panmure House is now part of the Business School's campus.
What Audiences Said about Red Rover's
Production of Visiting Cezanne
"Visiting Cezanne moved me greatly and brought me to tears at times. Needless to say your story pushed many emotions in my own life as an artist. Your research on Paul Cezanne was cunning. Thanks for a wonderful theatrical experience."
- George Woodall, veteran Seattle artist
"This beautifully directed and acted production of Visiting Cezanne plumbs its characters with precision and tenderness. Duane Kelly’s work has the gentle mastery and heartfulness you might expect of Horton Foote, and comic plot twists that would make Alan Ayckbourn proud. It doesn’t get better than this."
- Brad Warren, Writer and Editor
"So inspiring for artists."
- Eleanor Moseley Pollnow, Seattle actress and playwright
"I don’t want to overload you too much with flattery (or maybe I do)... we talked about the play all the way driving home (and in a good way). Did I tell you we live 45 minutes away?"
- Paul Sobrie, Seattle actor
"Because of attending the play my husband has started writing again. It was so inspirational that after not writing for a year he is again at it! We both loved the play."
"Surprising and beautiful with a lovely French essence."
- Janet "Elle" Raynor, scholar and performer of French cabaret music
Synopsis
What represents failure and success for artists? Unknown painter Nora Baker visits the Metropolitan Museum in New York in 2016. From there she travels to an artist’s studio in southern France in 1900. Nora desperately wants to get back to 2016 but Paul Cezanne, another obscure artist with his own problems, is not being helpful. Also ensnared in Nora’s crisis are Cezanne’s gardener and an art historian from Utah.
Play about Paul Cezanne
Red Rover premiered Visiting Cezanne in March, 2018 for eight sold-out performances at 18th & Union Arts Space in Seattle. Andrew McGinn directed. A second production opened Feb. 15, 2019 at Burien Actors Theatre in Seattle.
Cezanne's studio in Aix-en-Provence, France