Russell Davis

The Wild Goose Circus Russell Davis

"There is something tragic about [in the] askew big-top setting, even before the disheveled, vaguely European ringmaster explains that his menagerie of minstrels is somewhat 'dysfunctional.' Banners are frayed and tutus are tattered, but the colors still gleam and the tightrope is taut, giving this gaggle of grotesques just enough dignity to hold their shoulders square. Within this broken calliope frame, Davis piles a fantastic compost of meaty metaphor and biblical allegory, bears on unicycles and sad Freanch clowns. The rich, layered text gives way to inspired surreal absurdity that isn't merely a self-conscious jab at surrealism and absurdism... From trapeze to pirate ship to a monster walrus head, the staging is visual poetry, making THE WILD GOOSE CIRCUS all the more strange and beautiful and rare."
Tom Orr, The Seattle Times

"I remember the community at Sundance after two and a half weeks of work and the play's final reading: everyone was deeply, deeply moved. Some were stunned. Both Oskar Eustis and Steven Dietz who had worked on the play--and had had reservations about how completely the play might work--were shocked--registering that it amazed them, with all their professional work, that they hadn't seen the real power and potential of the play up until the final reading."
David Kranes, Artistic Director, Sundance Playwrights Lab

"Maybe it was the emotion at the end of the Lab, or the incredible work of the actors especially Walter Bobbie who read the lead, but the reading was the most memorable and moving in my ten years with Sundance."
David Chambers, Managing Director, Sundance Playwrights Lab