Playing Leni

Playing Leni
Robert DaPonte and Amanda Grove in a scene from Playing Leni.

Playing Leni

by David Robson and John Stanton
directed by Seth Reichgott
starring Amanda Grove and Robert DaPonte

May 27 – June 11, 2011

Adrienne Theatre Skybox
2030 Sansom Street, 3rd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103

 

Running time: 70 minutes without an intermission.

A dark comedy, Playing Leni is a fictionalized account of the capture and arrest of Leni Riefenstahl, filmmaker and propagandist for the Third Reich during World War II. Her captor, an unnamed Allied soldier, must transport Riefenstahl to a detention center. Riefenstahl, however, believes this “trip through the countryside” is the perfect opportunity to create her cinematic masterwork. Writing and rewriting her story as they travel, Riefenstahl comes face to face with the inescapable truths of war, privation, and death camps. The mystery soldier becomes jailor, confessor, and actor in Riefenstahl’s unending pursuit to produce, direct, and edit each piece of her life—blurring the lines between art and reality, ambition and conscience, innocence and culpability.

The opening scene of Playing Leni (then known as Dysfictional Circumstances) debuted at the 2010 Spark Showcase and was awarded the Hotel Obligado Audience Choice Award for New Work. The full play went on to a successful staged reading at the 2010 Philly Fringe. A review of the reading in the Philadelphia City Paper stated, “…based on the bare-bones preview, [the play] looks quite promising. So, if you plan to see only one comedy about a Nazi director this year, it should probably be this.”

 

Ticket Prices

Previews & Monday – $15
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday – $20
Saturday – $25

Discounts available for Students & Seniors (except for Previews) and through MixTix, a program of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia.


Schedule

Friday, May 27, 2011, 8:00 PM – Preview
Saturday, May 28, 2011, 8:00 PM – Preview with post-show talkbalk
Sunday, May 29, 2011, 2:00 PM – Preview
Tuesday, May 31, 2011, 8:00 PM – Just Added! Pay What You Can Preview
Wednesday, June 1, 2011, 8:00 PM – Opening Night
Thursday, June 2, 2011, 8:00 PM
Friday, June 3, 2011, 8:00 PM
Saturday, June 4, 2011, 8:00 PM
Sunday, June 5, 2011, 2:00 PM
Monday, June 6, 2011, 8:00 PM – Industry Night
Wednesday, June 8, 2011, 8:00 PM
Thursday, June 9, 2011, 8:00 PM
Friday, June 10, 2011, 8:00 PM
Saturday, June 11, 2011, 8:00 PM

Click here to support Playing Leni through our Kickstarter campaign.