Bite the Apple (full length)
Produced March 10-13, 2022 at 224 Waverly Place Theater, NYC
with help of a generous grant from Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation
Directed by Linda Manning
Original Music by Jono Hill
more details at Bite the Apple.com
with help of a generous grant from Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation
Directed by Linda Manning
Original Music by Jono Hill
more details at Bite the Apple.com
Photos by Alison Sheehy
What people are saying:
"Beautiful writing and a great cast."
"Awesome night at the theatre with Manning leading Grimm into 'A Wood of Her Own.'"
“Watching this play, I felt like I felt the first time I read Margaret Atwood.”
“I’ve never seen a play that made me think so much about the decisions that were made for me in life.”
“It was so real. Sometimes in life you really do find yourself out in the desert or lost in the woods.”
"What a beautiful and powerful production."
"Live theater is back baby!"
"Don't miss this sensational play."
"It was amazing. I'm still processing."
"Phenomenal, profound and moving."
"The acting was top notch, and the story and lighting kept me guessing."
"It was a deep and dark rendition of the many fairy tales that can haunt the modern woman."
"I'm blown away. You really got the unconscious mind breaking free of our internal traps."
"Beautiful writing and a great cast."
"Awesome night at the theatre with Manning leading Grimm into 'A Wood of Her Own.'"
“Watching this play, I felt like I felt the first time I read Margaret Atwood.”
“I’ve never seen a play that made me think so much about the decisions that were made for me in life.”
“It was so real. Sometimes in life you really do find yourself out in the desert or lost in the woods.”
"What a beautiful and powerful production."
"Live theater is back baby!"
"Don't miss this sensational play."
"It was amazing. I'm still processing."
"Phenomenal, profound and moving."
"The acting was top notch, and the story and lighting kept me guessing."
"It was a deep and dark rendition of the many fairy tales that can haunt the modern woman."
"I'm blown away. You really got the unconscious mind breaking free of our internal traps."
"Unlike Sondheim's Into the Woods (which never quite escapes the Disneyfication of The Brothers Grimm), Linda Manning's brilliant Bite the Apple retains the grit and the grief inherent in the original tales then adds a chromosonal twist. Reinterpreting the fables as parables of gender, Manning deftly, sometimes mercilessly, explores stages of womanhood by recasting Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel as female archetypes on a quest. The one male character -- a wolf who is sensed but never seen -- is at once predatory and seductive, oppositional and attractive; a kind of force that is neither good nor bad but shapes destiny as a matter of course. At times satiric, at other times achingly raw, Bite the Apple is a post-feminist, Jungian journey into identity and self-realization. A gorgeous work." Drew Pisarra, Dramaturg and Writer
- Finalist - Kentucky Women Writers Prize - 2019
- Revised version - staged reading Theater Lab NYC 2016
- Produced as part of the NY Int'l Fringe Festival 2012
A modern day Cinderella, in the middle of a full blown crisis, is thrust into the stories of Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Rapunzel exposing their emotionally treacherous stories of sexual abuse, abandonment, and betrayal, unearthing her own past she has tried to forget, and discovering the possibility of a new life, a new story.
Below:
Diana Henry as Cinderella
Gaia Visnar as Red
Nia Ragini as Snow White
Linda Manning as Rapunzel
Reviews from the workshop production at the New York Int'l Fringe Festival 2012
"The ensemble of actresses are remarkable, particularly the evocative and nuanced performance by Manning. Bite the Apple is a smart script with intricate dialogue and beautiful language...."
Joseph Samuel Wright, Theatre Is Easy, New York, NY
“Part adaptation, part re-telling, and part re-imagining, Linda Manning’s new play Bite the Apple persuades the audience members to reconnect with their stories, identify where their journeys have derailed, and reaffirm that each of them is ‘worth saving.’ And although this appeal is made through the lives of fictional women to ‘non-fictional’ women, its urgent entreaty is for all who have ears to hear and eyes to see.... Yes, Linda Manning can make this stuff up and indeed it does not get much better than this well-constructed play.... See Bite the Apple. Watch it, listen to it, see it, hear it, savor it, and continue to chew on its core until you know ‘which version of you is the right one.’”
David Roberts, Chief Critic, Theatre Reviews Limited, New York, NY
Bite the Apple, written by Linda Manning, is a thoughtful play, raising questions about love, identity, and being seen as you truly are, instead of who you are ‘supposed to be.’"
Josephine Cashman, NYTheatre.com
“FringeTastic: Bite The Apple
The characters continue to peel back layers of each other, slowly revealing the meaning behind each of their happily ever afters. I recommend Bite the Apple to anyone looking for a relief from the classic fairytale ending."
Alison Goldman, Play by Play, New York, NY
Joseph Samuel Wright, Theatre Is Easy, New York, NY
“Part adaptation, part re-telling, and part re-imagining, Linda Manning’s new play Bite the Apple persuades the audience members to reconnect with their stories, identify where their journeys have derailed, and reaffirm that each of them is ‘worth saving.’ And although this appeal is made through the lives of fictional women to ‘non-fictional’ women, its urgent entreaty is for all who have ears to hear and eyes to see.... Yes, Linda Manning can make this stuff up and indeed it does not get much better than this well-constructed play.... See Bite the Apple. Watch it, listen to it, see it, hear it, savor it, and continue to chew on its core until you know ‘which version of you is the right one.’”
David Roberts, Chief Critic, Theatre Reviews Limited, New York, NY
Bite the Apple, written by Linda Manning, is a thoughtful play, raising questions about love, identity, and being seen as you truly are, instead of who you are ‘supposed to be.’"
Josephine Cashman, NYTheatre.com
“FringeTastic: Bite The Apple
The characters continue to peel back layers of each other, slowly revealing the meaning behind each of their happily ever afters. I recommend Bite the Apple to anyone looking for a relief from the classic fairytale ending."
Alison Goldman, Play by Play, New York, NY