Oscar winner Olympia Dukakis ("Moonstruck") stars in Michel Tremblay's For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again at American Conservatory Theatre's Geary Theatre May 4-June 9. The French-Canadian comedy about the relationship between a supportive mother and her gay son opens on Mother's Day, May 12.
After its run in San Francisco, For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again will travel to the Williamstown Festival. It will play on the mainstage in a mini-festival, which also includes A Distant Country Called Youth, adapted from the letters of Tennessee Williams and directed by Steve Lawson; and Lackawanna Blues, the well-traveled memory piece by and starring Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
Dukakis most recently returned to Broadway in 2000's solo show, Rose, a production she also performed in the West End. At ACT, she starred in Hecuba and Singer's Boy. Her film credits include "Steel Magnolias," "Dad," "Look Who's Talking," "Mighty Aphrodite" and "Picture Perfect." She ran the Whole Theatre in Montclair, NJ, from 1971 until it closed in 1990.
Marco Barricelli plays her son, who, at 50, recreates his mother at five different times in his youth — at 10, 13, 16, 18 and 20. An ACT acting company member, Barricelli's credits with the Bay Area theatre include Glengarry Glen Ross, Enrico IV, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Invention of Love and The Beard of Avon.
Tremblay wrote Pleasure of Seeing Her Again as a tribute to his mother, who died of cancer before he reached international success. He has written some 21 plays, including Les Belles-Soeurs, Hosanna, Albertine in Fives Times and Bonjour, la bonjour, as well as three musicals, eleven novels, two collections of short stories and seven film scripts. Linda Garboriau translated For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again for this production. Designing the show are Ralph Funicello (sets), Judith Anne Dolan (costumes), James F. Ingalls (lighting) and Garth Hemphill (sound).
American Conservatory Theatre is located at 415 Geary Street. For ticket information, call (415) 749-2250. American Conservatory Theatre is on the web at http://www.act-sfbay.org.
— By Christine Ehren
and Robert Simonson
