RED BIKE by Caridad Svich

Named BEST Onstage Pre Pandemic Show of the Year (2020) in San Diego Union Tribune.
Named One of the BEST Theater Shows of 2020 in The Times of San Diego.

2018-2019 NNPN Rolling World Premiere.


What kind of future will you have living in these here United States? Remember when you were eleven years old and you had a bike, one that made you dream about a world bigger...
Named BEST Onstage Pre Pandemic Show of the Year (2020) in San Diego Union Tribune.
Named One of the BEST Theater Shows of 2020 in The Times of San Diego.

2018-2019 NNPN Rolling World Premiere.


What kind of future will you have living in these here United States? Remember when you were eleven years old and you had a bike, one that made you dream about a world bigger than the one in which you live? This is that memory. Except it is now. A play for one performer (two or three). This is the first play in the AMERICAN PSALM seven-play cycle. ... "Svich's RED BIKE is s luminous piece that tackles our common dreams and dangers with magic, poetry, and a sense of both possibility and loneliness. A beautiful work!" -- Cristina Garcia (novelist, Dreaming in Cuban)

"In RED BIKE, Svich sees poetry in the everyday, passion in politics, power in citizenship. In this play-monologue told from the perspective of pre adolescent exploring a world in distress (closed businesses, poverty on the street), Svich channels Carson McCullers' Frankie in A MEMBER OF THE WEDDING -- our unnamed protagonist observes astutely, accepts the parameters of their world, feels the possibilities of dreams. The bike is transportation and a dream mobile moving from one viewpoint to another, like a magic carpet. "Somebody gotta make red bikes somewhere," they muse, "so kids like me can dream." This dreamscape is haunting and gorgeous." -- Martha Wade Steketee, freelance critic and dramaturg

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RED BIKE

Recommended by

  • Max Langert:
    9 Feb. 2021
    “ I saw Know Theatre’s production of RED BIKE in 2020 and loved how much room there was for interpretation, direction, and movement. It’s a beautiful piece that moves and flows effortlessly with the poetry of the language. This is a powerful and versatile work that will stick with you for a long time. ”
  • Jerry Polner:
    8 Feb. 2021
    “ The 11-year-old voice in RED BIKE is a wonder of vivid images, flashing scenery, and things people wish for but will never have. There's a lot this young person doesn't understand, but she/he knows what the unknowns are -- all the things missing from the lives of the people in this small, sad town. RED BIKE is a voice poem masterwork. ”
  • Jessica Chipman:
    11 Dec. 2020
    “ Red Bike is great for many reasons. The poetry. The nostalgia. The elegiac ambiguity. The breath-catching line, "We forgot what it was we wanted / We forgot that the only thing we were here for / is to learn how to live / and how to die". With memory and familiarity as her tools, and requiring just two actors, Svich telescopes in from a drone's eye view of humanity and its ills and joys to the singular view many will recall of riding your bike down a hill, the wind in your face. ”
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Development History

Production History

Awards

Selection
,
NNPN Rolling World Premiere
,
2018
Honorable Mention
,
Kilroys List
,
The Kilroys
,
2017