A play-within-a-play by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks that explores the relationship between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, presented as the regional premiere at Zach Theater.
Zach Theater is bringing Sally & Tom to The Kleberg starting Wednesday, August 12, and it runs through Sunday, August 23. It's a play by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks, and this is its regional premiere, so it's the first time it's being staged in this part of the country.
It's a play-within-a-play, which means you're watching two things at once. The main story follows a contemporary theater company called Good Company as they rehearse a show they've titled The Pursuit of Happiness. That show is about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, and as the rehearsal goes on, the action shifts back and forth between the rehearsal room and 1790s America. You get to see the actors working through the scenes and then see those same scenes played out in the time and place they're meant to be.
Parks describes the play as witty, bold and unapologetically audacious, and the way it's set up—flipping between a modern rehearsal and the early American republic—is designed to flip American mythmaking on its head. It asks whose stories get preserved and whose are left untold, and it does that by letting you see the process of putting the story together in real time. If you're into theater that doesn't just tell a story but also talks about how we tell stories, this is exactly that kind of show.
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It runs Wednesday, August 12 through Sunday, August 23, with performances at 7:30 PM, plus Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2:30 PM. The show is two and a half hours long, which includes a 20-minute intermission, so you'll have a break in the middle to stretch your legs. It's playing at The Kleberg at Zach Theater in Austin.
