Full Cast Announced for Will Eno's Gnit, a Modern Take on Ibsen's Peer Gynt

Delayed by the pandemic, ”Gnit” will open the doors of Theatre for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center.

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September 28, 2021

Joe Curnutte (seen here in the 2019 off-Broadway production of Mrs. Murray's Menagerie) will play Peter in the New York premiere of Will Eno's Gnit. — Joe Curnutte (seen here in the 2019 off-Broadway production of *Mrs. Murray's Menagerie*) will play Peter in the New York premiere of Will Eno's *Gnit*.
(© Ben Arons)

The full cast has been announced for the New York premiere of Will Eno's Gnit, which will begin performances at TFANA's Polonsky Shakespeare Center on October 30, ahead of an official opening November 7. Performances are slated to run through November 21.

Based on Henrik Ibsen's sprawling, satirical, 19th century five-act verse play, Gnit features Jordan Bellow as Stranger 1, Joe Curnutte as Peter, Christy Escobar as (Stranger 2), Deborah Hedwall as Mother,  David Shih as Town, and Jasmine Batchelor as Solvay. Oliver Butler (What the Constitution means to Me) directs.

According to a press release, "Peter Gnit (Joe Curnutte) is a carefree young man on a reckless search for Experience and the True Self. Armed with tales from his mother of his early greatness and his absent father, he heads out into the world. Like all true stories of human endeavor and adventure, Gnit is part horror story, part fairy tale, and part road movie. A timely reckoning with received notions of Rugged Individualism and the self-made person."

The creative team includes Kimie Nishikawa (set design), Ásta Bennie Hostetter and Avery Reed (costume design), Amith Chandrashaker (lighting design), Lee Kinney (sound design), and Daniel Kluger (composer).