‘Isolde’ to explore absences of modern life at the Wex

McKenzie Merriman
Fri, 23 Jan 2015 02:30:30 +0000
Campus, drake center, new york city players, new york times, ohio state, Richard Maxwell, theatre, thurber theatre, wex, wexner center, wexner center for the arts

Jim Fletcher and Tory Vasquez star in ‘Isolde,’ premiering at the Wexner Center for the Arts Friday. Credit: Courtesy of Michael Schmelling

With a simple set and a small cast, playwright and director Richard Maxwell will be returning to Ohio State with his critically acclaimed production “Isolde.”

“Isolde,” which has received glowing reviews from publications such as The Village Voice and The New York Times, features a love triangle between “the title character Isolde, her husband who is a building contractor named Patrick and Massimo, a star architect and great talker who is hired to create (Isolde’s) dream vacation home but also wants to seduce her,” said Jennifer Wray, marketing and media assistant for the Wexner Center of the Arts. “There’s this classic love triangle element, but with a lot of humor. It’s a really unconventional take on a classic set up.”

Wray explained that the production’s “bare bones set … underscores this idea of absences and unfinished dimensions in contemporary life.”

In previous years, Maxwell has brought his theater group, the New York City Players, to OSU, and Wray said Maxwell “has been a favorite of our theater followers.”

Actress Tory Vazquez portrays the title character Isolde, and has been working on the production with the New York City Players “on and off for two and a half years … We have worked on it in New York, Basel, Switzerland and Mulhouse, France.”

“I am able to work with three of my favorite actors, and people from New York City and with my favorite playwright and director,” Vazquez said of her time with the New York

Tory Vazquez stars in ‘Isolde,’ premiering at the Wexner Center for the Arts Friday.
Credit: Courtesy of Michael Schmelling

City Players. “I hope that the audiences find the kind of theater work our company does as refreshing and inspiring as I do. I feel the work of this company is very precious; there isn’t much else like it out in the world.”

Wray said she expects a “nice mix of audiences, because the Wexner Center is sort of right at that intersection between campus life and city life,” and with student tickets costing $10, “you get to see live theater, which is an experience like none other.”

Isolde is set to place Saturday at Thurber Theatre at the Drake Center, and tickets can be purchased either through Ticketmaster or at the Wexner Center front desk.