Double Feature

Written by Jerry Mouawad

• Press Release
• Synopsis

“I began writing both pieces about a year ago. The Father-thing was inspired by a Philip K. Dick story of the same name. In the piece a family is psychologically tortured when an alien steals the father’s skin to impersonate him. I wanted to create a giant stage set that responded as if you were watching a movie. The audience would watch as the children look through the house for the missing father. The voyeurism of watching the family search for the missing father drew me to a film approach, I was hoping to stage it at American Repertory Theatre after my success with No Exit, so I wrote it as a screenplay with camera directions. The ART production never took off. I’m still staging it as if it were a movie, but since Imago can’t afford the $20,000 set, I’ve replaced the giant set with a miniature dollhouse that will give the audience a sense of cinemascopic aspects. I’ve added a narrator that speaks in the voice of the cinematographer,” says Mouawad.

Mouawad won an IRNE award for Best Director for No Exit in Boston. The production went on to receive rave reviews from the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal when it played at Hartford Stage Company in 2006.

“I don’t know where Serial Killer Parents came from. I hardly ever write. I think for Imago I’ve written three plays over the last ten years. For Serial Killer Parents I sat down and wrote it in one sitting. Lots of things came out. I was reading popular science, so there’s stuff about the moment before the Big Bang called the Singularity. It’s about two magicians who discover that their only child is a serial killer who is about to be executed. There’s something universal about a husband and wife magician team who have discovered this awful fate. Magicians who can’t remember what happened the moment before and can’t control reality is certainly an influence from Ionesco. It feels like a follow-up to my duet with Carol in Dead End Ed.”

Serial Killer Parents will be the first duet between Imago’s Artistic Directors Carol Triffle and Mouawad since they last appeared in the duet Dead End Ed in 1998, which won a Drammy for Best Original Play.

“I’m using the Imago space in a different way. I’ve designed the double set so that at intermission you must take a different seat in the theatre. The “Serial” set is on one side of the space, and the “Father-thing” set is on the other side. I’ve cut the theatre in half, and each play takes place in two different settings” says Mouawad.

Bryce Flint-Somerville will play the lead of the dad in The Father-thing. Mr. Flint-Somerville worked with Blue Man Group from 1998 to 2006 in performances in Boston, Chicago, and Berlin. He currently lives in Portland. Mr. Flint-Somerville will also perform in Imago’s Biglittlethings in December. Playing opposite him in The Father-thing in the role of the mother is Danielle Vermette, who has been a company member of Imago Theatre since 1999. Jess Pritchard plays the tortured son, Alina Ziak the indifferent daughter, Courtney Mansfield the impetuous neighbor, Steve Smith as Professor Bim Bimbop and Michael Biesanz as the cinematographer-narrator.