Category Archives: 2001-02 Season

The Scarlet Pimpernel (May 2-18, 2002)

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A Drama by Baroness Orczy, adapted by Beverley Cross

First performed in 1903, The Scarlet Pimpernel was the most successful play of its day – archetypal Edwardian theatre and the precursor of romantic Hollywood historical epics. This new adaptation, first presented at England’s Chichester Festival and then as a long-run West End production, brings to modern audiences the tale of the elusive English hero who snatches helpless innocents from death during the French Revolution, and rescues the Comte de Tournai with the enemy hot on this trail. The Scarlet Pimpernel works in the shadows, his identity unknown even to his immediate followers. He stands for English stability and against chaos and passionate fanaticism.

Incident at Vichy (March 7-23, 2002)

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A Drama by Arthur Miller

An intense, meaningful play which deals with the Nazis’ inhuman treatment of the Jews – and the burden of guilt which all men must share. In 1942, in the detention room of a Vichy police station, eight men have been picked up for questioning. As they wait to be called, they wonder why they were chosen. At first, their hopeful guess is that only their identity papers will be checked. But it soon develops that all of them are Jews or are suspected to be. One by one they disappear for interrogation until only two remain. The startling change of events at the end of this gripping play, redeems, at least in part, the concern and honour of decent men everywhere.

The Rainmaker (January 10-26, 2002)

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A Romantic Comedy by N. Richard Nash

At the time of a paralyzing drought in the American West, we discover a girl whose father and two brothers are worried as much about her becoming an old maid as they are about their dying cattle. Every possible scheme to marry her off is without success. Nor is there any sign of relief from the dry heat. But into their midst comes a picaresque character with a mellifluous tongue and the most grandiose notions a man could imagine. He claims to be a rainmaker! And he promises rain for only $100! Silly idea though it is, he is so refreshing, the family consents. The rainmaker turns his magic on the girl and persuades her she has a very real beauty of her own. Rain does come, and so does love.

The Aspern Papers (November 22 – December 8, 2001)

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A Thriller by Michael Redgrave, from the story by Henry James

“Bewitching, tantalizing, exciting! A work of uncommon suspense and exceptional literary merit.” – New York Daily News

At the turn of the twentieth century, in a once-grand Venetian palazzo, live, in seculsion, an old woman and her niece. An American publisher asks to lease some rooms, his purpose to unearth the mystery of a brilliant author who once loved the aunt. The old lady curtly rejects all enquiries; when she finds him going through some papers he has discovered, she is seized with a stroke. The lonely niece pathetically proposes, but he rejects her when she says she has burned the papers! Her affections spurned, she locks herself up in the palazzo. But had she really burned the papers?

Hay Fever (September 20 – October 6, 2001)

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A Comedy by Noel Coward

Coward at his hilarious and wicked best!

The Bliss family is ultra-Bohemian. Mother is a retired actress who makes a crisis out of every scene and father is a novelist. The daughter and son are attractive and ill-mannered. One weekend all announce they are expecting a guest; mother has invited an athletic youth who is in love with her; Sorel, a diplomat; Simon, an intense young woman; and David, a flapper type he is studying for a novel. The guests soon find themselves in the middle of mayhem and theatrics; and, although, for the family this is a way of life, for the guests it is utter bewilderment.