The University of Tennessee

Clarence Brown Theatre»

Welcome!

Press Release

Contact:  Robin Conklin
Marketing Director
865-974-2497
rconkli1@utk.edu

Ozzie and Harriett?   NOT!!!!!!!!!!!

Proving that no family dysfunction is insurmountable, the award-winning, wacky-yet-poignant comedy, “Fuddy Meers” takes the Clarence Brown Carousel Theatre stage February 9-26, 2012. The production contains strong language and adult subject matter.

Claire has a rare form of psychogenic amnesia that erases her memory whenever she goes to sleep. This morning, like all mornings, she wakes up a blank slate. Her chipper husband comes in with a cup of coffee, explains her condition, hands her a book filled with all sorts of essential information, and he disappears into the shower. A limping, lisping, half-blind, half-deaf man in a ski mask, pops out from under her bed and claims to be her brother, there to save her. Claire's info book is quickly discarded, and she's hustled off to the country-house of her mother, a recent stroke victim whose speech has been reduced to utter gibberish. Claire's journey gets even more complicated when a dimwitted thug with a foul-mouthed hand puppet pops up at a window, and her husband and perpetually stoned son show up with a claustrophobic lady-cop that they've kidnapped. Every twist and turn in this funhouse plot bring Claire closer to revealing her past life and everything she thought she'd forgotten.

“Fuddy Meers” is a story of a fractured, dysfunctional family in search of themselves and their relationship to one another.   Gertie’s extended family has experienced an inordinate number of misfortunes:  death, stroke, amnesia, drug abuse, theft, arson and imprisonment.  The combined shock of these events has traumatized her beleaguered family transforming who they once were.  They are now a family of strangers.  As a family, they have forgotten who they once were,” said director John Sipes.

Walking a fine line between grave reality and joyous lunacy, the world of David Lindsay-Abiare’s plays is often dark, funny, blithe, enigmatic, hopeful, ironic, and somewhat cockeyed. "My plays tend to be peopled with outsiders in search of clarity," he said.

“Fuddy Meers” performed to sell-out crowds Off Broadway, quickly transferred to Broadway for another successful run, and has had numerous productions in regional theatres across the country.  Lindsay-Abaire went on to have several other hits on the New York stage, including "Kimberly Akimbo," "Wonder of the World" (starring Sarah Jessica Parker), and "Rabbit Hole" (starring Cynthia Nixon, Tyne Daly and John Slattery), for which he won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony nomination for Best Play.

“In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, we, as a society, still try to maintain the traditional, idealized notion of the American family.  But in reality, the family rarely conforms to the wholesome, unspoiled depiction that exists in the fanciful, delusional American psyche,” Sipes said.  “Lindsay-Abaire puts before us a family that in many ways is more typical of our families—not in manner or degree but in spirit.  He has taken a good look at the family, and all its problems, weaknesses, anger, and dysfunction and says, ‘This is it!  This is the real American family!  Laugh at it!  Laugh at yourselves!  Face the truth, laugh and maybe—just maybe-- change will come!’”

John Sipes (Director) is an associate professor in the UT Department of Theatre.  Before joining the UT faculty, he was a director and the resident movement director for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 15 seasons. Prior to his residency at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he was a director and movement director for the Illinois Shakespeare Festival for 12 seasons, and served as the Festival’s artistic director for five seasons. Recent directing credits include: “Woyzeck,” “Oedipus the King,” “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” “All My Sons” (Clarence Brown Theatre); “Henry VIII,” “King John” (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); “Julius Caesar” (Shakespeare Santa Cruz); “The Year of Magical Thinking,” “The Hollow” (Milwaukee Rep); and “mr. lear” (Usine-C, Montreal). He received his MFA in Acting from Indiana University. He is a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique (AmSAT), and a certified actor/combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors. He also trained in corporeal mime with Étienne Decroux in Paris, and studied with Tadashi Suzuki in Japan.

More...