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THEATRE + COMEDY

Home > THEATRE + COMEDY > Paradise Hotel

Paradise Hotel

Presented by The Catastrophic Theatre at DiverseWorks ArtSpace

February 11-February 26, 2011

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The Catastrophic Theatre is pleased to announce the Houston premiere of Richard Foreman’s Paradise Hotel: a frank, experimental play about the nature of physical and emotional satisfaction and the bipolar nature of American sexuality. Directed by Greg Dean and Troy Schulze. Running February 11- 26 at DiverseWorks ArtSpace.

The play is set in a sexual purgatory. Everyone wants to have sex, but no one is actually having sex because they haven’t reached their destination - Hotel Fuck. The dead-eyed, slack-jawed desire for physical pleasure is at odds with an invading threat of dewy sentimentality -- a placed called Hotel Beautiful Roses.

“Watching it will be like sitting in on someone’s dream; like an hallucinogenic trip,” co-director Greg Dean says. “Foreman’s plays are largely unknown outside of New York and the theater world. They’re a lot of fun: funny, sad, mind-expanding.” He describes Foreman’s work as “metaphysical vaudeville or philosophical burlesque”: combining low elements with intellectual themes.

If you’ve never witnessed one, expect a wild ride from a Foreman play. Paradise Hotel is not driven by a familiar narrative pattern, but by a series of situations that are constantly being interrupted. Like watching the Three Stooges try to accomplish a series of tasks, the entertainment value is not in watching the characters succeed, it’s in watching them flounder.

This play is for mature audiences.

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DiverseWorks ArtSpace

1117 East Freeway
I-10 at North Main
Houston, Tx 77002

Full map and directions

Tickets:

All regular performances are Pay-What-You-Can. Suggested ticket price is $20 but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Special prices for opening night.

Times:

8:00pm Wednesday-Saturday

Phone: 713-522-2723

Accessibility Info: Currently, no accessibility information is available for this event.

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Event Name: Paradise Hotel
"No sex please, it's farce."
Review posted by: Jim Tommaney from Houston, TX, Feb 18, 2011

Kudos for mounting this non-sexual farce about sex, with a set that works well to facilitate the quick exits and entrances that are the hallmark of farce. Don't look for wit - Oscar Wilde is absent... Expand

Kudos for mounting this non-sexual farce about sex, with a set that works well to facilitate the quick exits and entrances that are the hallmark of farce. Don't look for wit - Oscar Wilde is absent -nor much plot or even suspense, though an attempt is made to manufacture some by quick blackouts, strobe lights and ominous music. But the dedicated and very gifted performers rise above the thin gruel of a script to create fun and some memorable moments of frustrated lunacy. Foreman's point is that sex isn't sexy (he's wrong, by the way) but this was more tersely put by the British clubman: "The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable." But if you can lower expectations, you will enjoy the madcap frenzy, the repeated startled looks, the desperation that drives talented artists to throw themselves into this maelstrom of energy. Go with the flow, man, kick back and enjoy the show. That's what the actors are doing - why not join them? Collapse
Event Name: Paradise Hotel
"Fast-moving Farce"
Review posted by: Jim Tommaney from Houston, TX, Feb 18, 2011

The Catastrophic Thestre earns kudos for mounting this non-sexual farce about sex, which is more about door-slamming exits and unexpected entrances than about what lies below the belt. There's little... Expand

The Catastrophic Thestre earns kudos for mounting this non-sexual farce about sex, which is more about door-slamming exits and unexpected entrances than about what lies below the belt. There's little wit and less plot, some manufactured suspense heavily helped by ominous music and quick blackouts, but what we do have is dedicated performers rising above the thin gruel of the alleged script to create memorable moments of frustrated lunacy. Foreman points out that sex isn't sexy, more tersely put by the British clubman who said "The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable." But if you relax and just go with the flow (lower the expectations, please) you will find you've spent a very enjoyable ninety minutes in the company of very gifted - and extremely hard-working - performers. Collapse