Category Archives: All Years

Tarantara! Tarantara! (May 10-19, 2012)

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A Musical

Book, music, and lyrics by Ian Taylor. With music by Sir Arthur Sullivan.

This delightful small-scale musical tells the story of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan partnership filled with the incredible successes and the divisions that would threaten their collaboration. We see the highs: their meeting, the association with impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte, the mounting achieve-ments in comic opera, but we also see the problems: the divergencies of temperament and conflicting ambitions, Gilbert’s obsession with his “lozenge” story and the trouble it caused, Sullivan’s lavish social life and its disruptive consequences, his ill health, and the famous tragi-comic quarrel over a new carpet for the theatre. All of these episodes and more are covered as musical excerpts from their well-known operas are threaded into this story.

Bus Stop (March 15-24, 2012)

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A Drama by William Inge

In this warm and affecting hit drama, with romantic and some comedic elements, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright William Inge examines some of the many faces of love. Bus Stop is about a group of strangers travelling by bus stranded in a rural Kansas diner during a freak snowstorm. The compelling narrative observes eight characters as they experience frustration, tears and laughter, examine their own motivations and forge unlikely romantic connections in a single night.

The Play’s the Thing (January 12-21, 2012)

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A Comedy by Ferenc Molnar

The Play’s The Thing is one of the funniest comedies ever written about the theatre. In it, playwright Turai and his collaborator bring a young composer, Albert Adam, on a surprise visit to a castle on the Italian Rivera with their prima donna, Ilona, Albert’s fiancee. When Albert overhears his beloved being wooed in her boudoir, Turai tells him it is all a silly mistake, explaining to the besotted young man that the passionate scene was merely a rehearsal for a new play. To support his fabrication, Turai stays up all night to write a play which includes the overheard love talk. The next day, during a public rehearsal, the suggestive dialogue is reborn as an innocent, harmless bit of dialogue from a play, but actually a barbed satire showing just how ridiculous a writer can make an actor appear, especially when the actor is in no position to protest!

Praise for The Play’s the Thing

 

Crown Matrimonial (November 17-26, 2011)

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A Drama by Royce Ryton

This year sees the 75th anniversary of the 1936 abdication crisis which brought the diffident and stuttering King George VI to the throne, an event depicted in the recent highly successful film, The King’s Speech. It is this crisis which is at the heart of Royce Ryton’s play, showing us the volatile relationship between Queen Mary and her son King Edward VIII caused by his love affair with a divorced woman, Wallis Simpson. The author shows us the King’s conviction that without Mrs. Simpson he could not do his job, and his readiness to sacrifice his throne and his family, espe-cially his stammering younger brother, who must succeed him.

The Winslow Boy (September 29 – October 8, 2011)

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A Drama by Terence Ratigan

Based on a true incident, The Winslow Boy is considered by some to be the finest work of the brilliant British writer Sir Terence Ratigan, a master of the “well made play” and immensely popular at the box office during his life time. In the play, young Ronnie Winslow is accused of theft and is expelled from the Royal Naval College at Osborne without a trial. Ronnie protests his inno-cence to his father, who is determined to clear his son’s name no matter what the cost. It is the father’s fight to “Let Right Be Done” in the face of injustice that captivates and enthrals the audience.

Praise for The Winslow Boy

 

The Crucible (May 5-14, 2011)

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A Drama by Arthur Miller

Winner of the 1953 Tony Award for best play, this exciting drama about the Puritan purge of witchcraft in old Salem, Massachusetts, is both a gripping historical play, and a timely parable of our contemporary society. The plays shows how small lies — children’s lies — build and build, until a whole town is aroused and nineteen men and women go to the gallows for being possessed of the Devil. After a servant girl maliciously accuses a farmer’s young wife of witchcraft, the farmer brings the girl to court to admit the lie. The ensuing thrilling, blood-curdling, and terrifying trial scene, with its depiction of bigotry and deceit, hurtles the characters to a sad and ironic conclusion. Miller wrote the play after he was hauled before the House Committee on Un-American Activities on charges of being a Communist.

‘Art’ (March 10-19, 2011)

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A Drama by Yasmina Reza. Translated by Christopher Hampton

How much would you pay for a white painting? Would it matter who the painter was? Would it be art? One of Marc’s best friends, Serge, has just purchased such a painting. To Marc, the painting is a joke, but Serge insists that Marc doesn’t have the proper standards to judge the work. Another friend, Ivan, although burdened by his own problems, likes the work. Lines are drawn and these old friends square off over the canvas, using it as an excuse to relentlessly batter one another over various failures. Arguments become more personal. Serge gives Marc a felt pen and dares him: “Go on!” Friendship is finally tested but the aftermath affirms the power of those bonds. Absolute hilarity!

“…sounds like a marriage of Molière and Woody Allen.” – Newsweek

Inherit the Wind (January 13-22, 2011)

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A Drama by Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee

“A masterpiece! To see a play once, twice, three times, and each time to leave the theatre as deeply moved, as enlightened, as lifted up, as magnificently entertained—this is the test!” – Columbus, Ohio, Citzen

This is the play that has as its genesis the events of the famous Scopes trial and its controversial arguemnt as to the origin of man! One of outstanding dramas of our time. The portrait it draws of an explosive episode in American culture, vigorously written, remains one of the most stirring plays in recent years, yet retains its folk flavour and spiritual awareness.