North American Premiere Of Trevor Griffith's "Piano" Opens Theatre @ York's Season

TORONTO, November 19, 1998 -- Theatre @ York launches its 98/99 season with the North American premiere production of Trevor Griffiths' Piano, directed by Michael Najjar, opening at York University November 24.

Griffiths is one of England's foremost writers for film, television and stage. His plays, including Occupations, Comedians and The Party, are landmarks of contemporary British theatre.

Piano is a revealing comedy about life in a world on the brink of social and political upheaval. The play is set in turn-of-the-century Russia at a congenial garden party hosted by the wealthy widow of a general. With the arrival of local schoolteacher Mikhail Platonov, the faÁade begins to crack. His refusal to go along with the other guests' complacency and smug hypocrisy sends the entire party - and society - into chaos.

First produced in London in 1990, Piano has been called a "new" Chekhov play. Inspired by the 1977 Russian film An Unfinished Piece for a Mechanical Piano by Oscar-winning director Nikita Mikhalkov, it reworks themes and characters found in Chekhov's short stories and his early play, Platonov.

While Piano has deep and complex roots, its performance history is short: Theatre @ York's production is the fourth staging worldwide (following shows in Germany and Japan). Director Najjar, who is currently completing his graduate degree in theatre at York, "tripped across the script" in the York University library while researching his thesis show.

"I read it, and I was hooked," said Najjar.

For Najjar, who has been in touch with Griffiths over the course of this production, the opportunity to introduce the play to a North American audience is especially compelling.

"Piano deserves a wide audience," Najjar said, "and it's exciting to be part of the process of making it better known."

While remaining true to its period setting, Najjar sees Piano as very much a play of our time.

"It's about relationships, about doubts and hopes, about questioning the status quo," he said. "In the end, it's about us."

While this is his first production of a Griffiths play, Najjar is no stranger to modern British drama, nor to Chekhov. Founding artistic director of The Riverside Repertory Theater of New Mexico from 1992 to 1997, his professional credits include Pinter's Betrayal, Osborne's Look Back in Anger, Cartwright's Road, and (with Leonardo Shapiro) Chekhov's The Seagull, which toured the Baltimore Theatre Project.

In Piano, Najjar directs a cast drawn from the 4th year undergraduate and 2nd year graduate acting ensembles of York University's Theatre Department. Lighting, costumes and sets are designed by fourth-year students in the production stream.

Piano previews Nov. 22 and 23, opens Tues. Nov. 24 and runs to Nov. 28 in the Joseph G. Green Studio Theatre, Centre for Fine Arts at York University, 4700 Keele St. Showtime is 7:30 p.m. with matinees Nov. 25 and 27 at 1:00 p.m. Admission is $10, students/seniors $7, group rate $5. Previews are PWYC on Nov. 22 and $4 on Nov. 23. For more information call (416) 736-5172 ext. 3. For tickets, call the Theatre @ York box office at (416) 736-5157.

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For more information, please contact:

Brigitte Kleer
Manager, Public Relations
Faculty of Fine Arts, York University
(416) 736-2100 ext. 77143
email: bkleer@yorku.ca