Cock and Bull Theatre Haunts Berger Park's Gunder House This October

By: Sep. 30, 2016
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Cock & Bull is proud to present the World Premiere of Lecherous Honey, a new contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen'sGhosts, written by LA Playwright Megan Breen, to be performed at the Berger Park North Mansion (The Gunder House), 6205 N. Sheridan Rd, in Chicago. There will be a preview on Thursday, October 20th, the opening is Friday October 21st, and the Press Night is Saturday, October 22nd. The show will run Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30PM from October 21st through November 12th.

Built in 1910 for pharmaceutical executive Samuel Gunder, the North Mansion is an extravagant take on the American foursquare style. In the 1940s, it was purchased (along with the nearby Downey House) by an order of Catholic priests known as The Clerics of St. Viator, who used it as living quarters for their student priests. The Viatorian fathers eventually sold both houses to Chicago Park District, ensuring that they only be used for community purposes.

Both houses were granted Landmark Status in 2013, and Berger Park has been one of the sites of Open House Chicago, the Chicago Architecture Foundation's annual architecture festival. Park District staff have reported sightings of a ghostly figure appearing in the bedroom window of one of the houses.

The house's history and its ghosts might be what give the house its texture, the intact original woodwork offering traces of those who passed through its rooms over the past century. "This is a play about how the past haunts us," says Lecherous Honey director and c*ckand Bull Artistic Director Chris Garcia Peak. "The rich, amazing architecture creates the sensation of being trapped - both in the house itself and in Mrs. Alving's mind. The ghosts, in and out of the play, become real."

About Lecherous Honey

Lecherous Honey, a new contemporary adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, is a site-specific promenade piece directed by c*ckand Bull's Artistic Director Chris Garcia Peak, written by LA Playwright Megan Breen, to be performed at the Berger Park North Mansion (The Gunder House), 6205 N. Sheridan Rd, in Chicago. There will be a preview on Thursday, October 20th, the opening is Friday October 21st, and the Press Night is Saturday, October 22nd. The show will run Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30PM from October 21st through November 12th.



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