Saw this one at the Attic Theater in Detroit in 1991. I am sure I have seen it several other times over the years. It endures because its themes endure I guess. Or that's what is says in the director's notes. The Attic Theater was such a great resource for Detroit. I am very sad it has never returned.
Lavinia Moyer helmed the Attic 1976-94, through years that saw great promise, artistic success and, finally, financial despair for the nonprofit. The Attic for many years was considered the city of Detroit's most artistically sound resident theatre, but a fire at its Greektown-area location began years of financial instability that saw the company move to various spaces, including a partially-renovated Strand Theatre in downtown Pontiac, MI (1992-94). The Attic later limped along artistically and financially at a space in Trapper's Alley, in Detroit's Greektown, before presenting sporadically in Pontiac (after being shut out of the Strand by the city of Pontiac). The Attic Theater Moyer knew -- one of beneficient subscribers and promise and donations and returning artists and Equity actors -- is gone now. Too bad for us.
FRIDAY'S FORGOTTEN BOOK LINKS WON'T BE UP UNTIL AROUND 12:00 EST due to my location.
We saw a terrific production of this play at the Abreacht Theater in Detroit (this is the director, Charles Reynolds). It's done in a series of four monologues by a faith healer, his wife, his manager, and then him again. The performances were outstanding. I have to say the Irish know how to tell a good story and this one stands out. There are some mysteries here and you can make your own interpretation of events.
Strangely enough this is the first Sondheim production I have seen and we saw it last week at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor. It was terrific. Now I am keen to see more. Music and lyrics by Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler based on a Bergman film SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT.
Nice little prologue here courtesy of I don't know who but thanks.
We saw this at the Abreacht Theater in September, 2012. I am a sucker for Irish plays and this little theater put on a good production. Martin McDonagh is the playwright. For one week each autumn, Mick Dowd is hired to dissenter the bones in a local cemetery to make room for new arrivals. As the time comes for him to dig up the bones of his dead wife, rumors begin to circulate about her sudden death seven years before. Really nice production.
We saw Oscar Wilde's AN IDEAL HUSBAND at the Shaw Festival in summer, 2010. It was an excellent production, the staging and costumes were terrific.
Here is a cute video that shows how the stage got changed between THE WOMAN and THE IDEAL HUSBAND that summer. The Shaw Festival has three theaters, each showing 2-3 plays. The Stratford has four theaters, each showing 2-3 plays. The Canadians really take these festivals seriously.
Amazing how these theaters put on so many plays at once. AN IDEAL HUSBAND first played in 1895. Its wit and the topic plays well more than 125 years later. It has been filmed three times, most recently in 1998 with Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Rupert Everett and Jeremy Northam.
