RENEGADE THEATRE EXPERIMENT PRESENTS: Paul Lucas’s brand-new play The Dice House

(PRWEB) May 24, 2003

WHAT: Paul Lucas’s The Dice House, a perverse farce about chance and free will. Based on Luke Rhinehart’s classic 1972 novel The Dice Man, which Anthony Burgess called "touching, ingenious and beautifully comic,” The Dice House has earned Rhinehart’s own endorsement as “a treat…joyous…my favourite Dice Man-inspired work.”

WHO: Renegade Theatre Experiment. Director: Russ Marcel. Cast: Sean Murphy, Mark Drumm, Sarah Almazol, Whitney Stebbins, Spencer Haugen, Rimma Dreyband, Peter Canavese, Dan Calvisi, and Gabriel Esparza. San Jose-based company with all-local cast, comprised primarily of SCU alumni.

WHY: A chance for American audiences to enjoy the hit of last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A hilarious and irreverent comedy appealing to anyone who’s ever wished for a “quick-fix” to the problems of life. The Dice House is the opening show of RTE’s sophomore season; RTE is a local non-profit theatre company with deep community ties.

WHEN: June 4-5 (Pay-What-You-Can Preview), June 6-7, 11-14, 18-21.

WHERE: Benson Theatre (corner of Elm St. and Emory Ave.). 850 Elm St., San Jose, CA 95126. General Seating.

HOW (MUCH): Ticket Price: $18.00. Students/Seniors/TBA Members: $12.00. Tickets available online and at the door. http://www.renegadetheatre.com. (408) 351-4440.

Paul Lucas’s The Dice House, based on Luke Rhinehart’s 1972 cult smash novel The Dice Man, comes straight from last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where the play shocked and delighted international audiences. Now, American audiences can discover a play destined to become a theatrical perennial; Renegade Theatre Experiment proudly presents The Dice House.

The Dice House satirizes psychiatric “quick fixes” in a post-modern world but also looks deeply at the function of chance in our lives. The play—which comes straight from last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival—concerns too rival psychiatrists: Dr. Drabble invests in traditional methods and Dr. Ratner is the revolutionary proponent of “dice theory,” the idea that every life decision should be put to a roll of the dice.

When Drabble’s wife succumbs to the alluring abandon of dice theory, he blackmails his anxious patient Matthew into undertaking a commando mission to raid “The Dice House.” The Dice House is home to random hijinks and loopy characters, leading Rhinehart to dub the play “a comic romp in the tradition of Moliere” and director Russ Marcel to call it “a farce on acid.”

The Dice House will be performed June 4 & 5 (Pay-What-You-Can Previews), June 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, and 21 at Benson Theatre in San Jose (850 Elm St.; corner of Elm and Emory).