59E59 unveils fall lineup

Kilroy's 'Shape of Metal' kicking off season

By GORDON COX

The fall lineup at Off Broadway's multi-stage 59E59 Theaters includes legit actor Brian Murray directing Roberta Maxwell in a New York preem, a new play by Jane Martin and a Gotham outing for Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater.

Season kicks off with Murray helming Irish scribe Thomas Kilroy's play "The Shape of Metal," about a sculptor (Maxwell) and her daughter haunted by the mysterious disappearance of the sculptor's elder daughter.

Murray and Maxwell have collaborated before, both winning Obies in 1977 for their performances in David Rudkin's "Ashes." Origin Theater Company production runs Sept. 8-30.

"Flags," the new play by the famously pseudonymous Martin ("Talking With...") -- who may or may not be former Actors Theater of Louisville a.d. Jon Jory -- uses the structure of Greek tragedy to chronicle a contemporary family faced with the death of a son in Iraq.

Henry Wishcamper directs Chris Mulkey and Karen Landry in the Firefly Theater production, which runs Sept. 12-30.

The Steppenwolf's contribution to the slate is "When the Messenger is Hot," Laura Eason's adaptation of a book of short stories by Elizabeth Crane. Plot centers on a phone call home from a mother thought dead. Directed by Jessica Thebus, show runs Oct. 3-28.

Also on the bill:

• "The HG Wells Science Fiction Festival," RadioTheater's live radio-play adaptations of Wells tales including "The Time Machine" and "The War of the Worlds" (Oct. 10-Nov. 4)

• "Crime and Punishment," a Chicago Writers Theater adaptation of the Doestoevsky novel (Nov. 1-Dec. 2)

• "Secret Order," a Merrimack Repertory production of Bob Clyman's play about a medical researcher close to curing cancer (Nov. 9-Dec. 9)

• "Cut to the Chase," a family-oriented vaudeville revue by the troupe Parallel Exit (Dec. 5-30)

• "The City that Cried Wolf," Brook Reeves' noir mystery about nursery rhyme characters produced by State of Play Theater (Dec. 5-30)