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TONGUES / THE WAR IN HEAVEN
by SAM SHEPARD and JOSEPH CHAIKIN
a poetic journey to the afterlife and beyond
enacted by Lorraine Olsen and Val Hendrickson
TONGUES / THE WAR IN HEAVEN evokes the elusive logic of a dream to form a speculative fantasia on the afterlife.
Available to perform at low or no cost as a service to community organizations wishing to engage with this subject matter.
No technical requirements. Just an open space and some folding chairs for your audience.
45 minutes long, followed by a conversation with the actors.
Val and Lorraine transfixed our intimate audience. We felt the power of acknowledging death and digging deeper into our own emotions as we watched them and then shared personal stories and reflections on the playwrights. As a program and creative director, the web of connections, community, and gratitude that I hoped for exceeded all possibilities.
— Sarah Brigid Newsham Kent, San Francisco Village
Lorraine Olsen's original solo show, Figuratively Speaking, won “Best of” The San Francisco Fringe Festival. She performed it at Shotgun Players Cabaret, SF Playhouse, WOW Café Theatre, and as an "Encore Artist" at the United Solo Theatre Festival. Olsen most recently appeared in the Baloney production of Thighs Wide Shut.
Val Hendrickson's acting credits include stints with Shotgun Players, Berkeley Rep, Magic Theatre, and at Theatre Rhinoceros in Breaking the Code, for which he was nominated for a Bay Area Critics Circle Award. He has staged numerous plays in New York and San Francisco and received both a Villager Downtown Theatre Award and a Dean Goodman Choice Award for outstanding direction.
Renowned playwright Sam Shepard had the distinction of receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. He co-wrote four one-act plays over an 18-year period with actor/director/pedagogue Joseph Chaikin, founder of the Open Theatre.
TONGUES dates from a Magic Theatre collaboration in 1978, THE WAR IN HEAVEN from a WBAI radio broadcast in 1984.
Contact Us
Theatre Valentine
is the alias for the collaborative work of
Lorraine Olsen and Val Hendrickson
in the Bay Area since 1993