THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT!
PLEASE SECURE TICKETS NOW TO OUR NEXT TWO EVENTS!
Monday, April 14
Date and time
Monday, April 14 · 7 – 9pm EDT
Unique Script-In-Hand Performance!
Followed by a thrilling Post-Performance-Discourse!
Location
THE PLAYERS
16 Gramercy Park South
New York, NY 10003
(20th Street between Park and Third Avenues)
Join us as we celebrate our 20th Gingold Anniversary by returning to New York’s most legendary theatrical club, THE PLAYERS!
DIRECTED BY CARL ANDRESS
OUR ASTONISHING CAST!
Judith Bliss … CHARLES BUSCH
David Bliss … THOMAS HEWITT
Sorel Bliss … EVIE SHUCKMAN
Simon Bliss … RODD CYRUS
Sandy Tyrell … DAN DOMINGUES
Myra Arundel … JENNIFER VAN DYCK
Richard Greatham … DAVID STALLER
Jackie Coryton … JENNIFER CODY
Clara … ANNIE GOLDEN
Stage Manager … NIKKI LINT
ALL GENERAL SEATING!
For reserved VIP seating please phone the Gingold office: 212.355.7823
ALL OF PROJECT SHAW EVENTS ARE UNIQUE SCRIPT-IN-HAND PERFORMANCES!
NO REFUNDS. NO EXCHANGES.
HAY FEVER, 1925. This is one of the most larkish and outrageous English comedies to emerge from the post-WWI blast of the 1920s. Though the war is never referenced in the play, it’ll help to realize that the brilliant brittle bombastic brutality of Coward’s hilarity is a direct response to the unspeakable horrors from only a few years before. The Jazz Age was a societal pushback against the Establishment. The need for overt yet insightful comedy had never seemed more desperately needed when Coward wrote this. The theatrical reactions to WWI could be seen everywhere on the West End with high and low dramas about the carnage and the grey aftermath. However, Coward (who was extremely grateful to have missed military duties) was determined to serve his community with laughter. This charming play caught the theatre-going public by surprise and immediately proved that Coward was a Bright Young Thing to be reckoned with. Like Shaw, he resolutely hid his inner demons. He would periodically slide into an Imposter Syndrome episode by hiding from the world. He dealt with this by creating a bold persona. For Shaw, it was the uber-confident G.B.S. For Noel Coward, it was the slim and sleek NOËL, Man About Town. Like Shaw, Coward had been an inconvenient child. Both had little formal education, self-educated, and began at a shockingly early age to question their existence. They both resolved to make their lives mean something more than merely existing. Coward longed to be the New Shaw, sending his early work to G.B.S. desperate for approbation. Shaw responded encouragingly but with the stern admonition, “I’m already taken! Be yourself!” Coward took it to heart and the result is this light-hearted examination into how we all find the most creative ways to sabotage ourselves and hide from our own unique truths out of—what? Fear, anger, inhibition, insecurity? Coward had begun to create his own devoted family of choice, learning early that he needed the love and care of his tribe. In this comedy, we see how each character is longing for this, too: to belong, to fit in, to find a point and a purpose. How lucky we are to have our community around us, fighting the good fight and understanding the power of the voice of the artist and the need to live an examined life. – David Staller