For the first time in 15 years, Tony and three-time Emmy winner Amanda Plummer is returning to the New York stage. Plummer will star alongside Oscar nominee Brad Dourif in the off-Broadway premiere of The Two-Character Play by Tennessee Williams. Directed by Gene David Kirk, the rarely performed play begins performances June 10 at New World Stages. Opening night is set for June 19.
The Two-Character Play tells the story of Clare (Plummer) and Felice (Dourif), two actors on tour who are also siblings. After finding themselves deserted by their troupe and faced with an audience expecting a performance, Clare and Felice enact The Two-Character Play. As they dip in and out of performance, they find it difficult to differentiate themselves from their roles and reality from illusion.
The Two-Character Play premiered in London in 1967 before transferring to Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre in 1973, under the title Out Cry. The production starred Michael York and Cara Duff-MacCormick. Out Cry closed after only 12 performances. After it shuttered, Williams continued to work on the play until his final version was published in The Theatre of Tennessee Williams Volume 5. Kirk mounted The Two-Character Play at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre in 2010.
Plummer earned a Tony for her performance in Agnes of God, and two additional nominations for A Taste of Honey and Pygmalion. Her other Broadway credits include You Never Can Tell, The Glass Menagerie and A Stitch in Time. On film, Plummer has appeared in Pulp Fiction, So I Married an Axe Murderer, My Life Without Me and The Fisher King She will star as Wiress in the forthcoming film adaptation of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Dourif appeared off-Broadway in When You Comin’ Back Red Ryder? He garnered an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Billy Bibbit in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. His additional film credits include Mississippi Burning, Ragtime, Dune, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Scream of Stone, The Wild Blue Yonder, Blue Velvet and the voice of the evil doll Chucky in the Child’s Play movies. His TV appearances include Star Trek: Voyager, Deadwood, Babylon 5 and Ponderosa.