Bill Blachly Ann O'Brien
Vermont Theatre Festival
2024 Season
4
THE MIKADO
by
WS Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan
Of Gilbert's contribution, the Illustrated London News reported, "Mr. W. S. Gilbert has returned to the Gilbert of the past, and everyone is delighted. He is himself again. The Gilbert of The Bab Ballads, the Gilbert of whimsical conceit, inoffensive cynicism, subtle satire, and playful paradox; the Gilbert who invented a school of his own, who in it was schoolmaster and pupil, who has never taught anybody but himself, and is never likely to have any imitator – this is the Gilbert the public want to see, and this is the Gilbert who on Saturday night was cheered till the audience was weary of cheering any more."
June 28 July -14
Uncle Vanya
by
Anton Chekhov
July 19 Aug 4
A Play for Our Anxious Era. Despite debuting 125 years ago, Anton Chekhov's drama of claustrophobia, resentment and despair feels perfectly suited to present day America.
Much Ado About Nothing
by
William Shakespeare
July 18 - Aug. 4
The play is set in Messina and revolves around two romantic pairings that emerge when a group of soldiers arrive in the town. The first, between Claudio and Hero, is nearly scuppered by the accusations of the villain, Don John. The second, between Claudio's friend Benedick and Hero's cousin Beatrice, takes centre stage as the play continues, with both characters' wit and banter providing much of the humour.
Through "noting" (sounding like "nothing" and meaning gossip, rumour, overhearing),[2][3] Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into believing that Hero is not a maiden (virgin). The title's play on words references the secrets and trickery that form the backbone of the play's comedy, intrigue, and action.
Returning to Haifa
by
Ghassan Kanafani
adapted for the stage by Naomi Wallace and Ismail Khalidi
Aug 8 - 24
Commissioned by New York’s Public Theater, this play never reached the stage because of pressure from the board. They missed a trick because it is a powerful and disturbing piece Adapted by Ismail Khalidi and Naomi Wallace from a novella by the Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani (1936-72), it works on several levels: as a poignant family drama, as a plea for Israeli-Palestinian understanding and as a warning of what will follow without some form of reconciliation.
The play shows a Palestinian couple returning to Haifa in 1967 in search of the house and son they
were forced to abandon 20 years previously during mass evictions by Israeli forces. They constantly debate whether they are right to make the journey. When they arrive, they find their old home occupied by the widowed Miriam who fled from Poland after her father was sent to Auschwitz and who adopted the couple’s son and brought him up as a naturalised Israeli.
This could easily be a propaganda piece. Instead, it offers a moving confrontation between two sets of displaced people and an utterly unsentimental exploration of the complexities of home, history and parenthood. Said, the aggrieved Palestinian father, is a truculent figure whose aggression is matched, possibly to excess, by that of the son he lost. Surveying the Haifa house he once owned, Said also says, more in prophetic sorrow than in anger, that it will take a war to settle ancient wrongs.
A Night at the Opera
August 30 and 31 at 7:30
An evening of opera scenes from opera favorites: Tosca, The Marriage of Figaro, Fidelio, Semele, and Rigoletto. Featuring internationally acclaimed and local opera singers, Erik Kroncke, Adam Hall, Lillian Broderick, Annalise Shelmandine, Emily Milne, and Nessa Rabin. At the piano is Mary Jane Austin.
Curtain Time
7:30 SHARP
Tickets:
Adults $30, Children 12 and under $15.
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Marshfield Vermont 05658