Feature: TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT at West End Productions

WEST END PRODUCTIONS' 2019 season kicks off on February 22nd with TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT. Four of Albuquerque's favorite actors - Kenneth Ansloan, Tim Crofton, Tim MacAlpine and Harry Zimmerman, under the direction of Cy and Jane Hoffman, play the many characters, including the central figure, sometimes simultaneously! Four middle-aged men, each dressed in a black suit, with a black tie, sporting a black bowler hat and a red carnation in his jacket button-hole, sit facing the audience. It is not the most exciting way to start a theatrical journey, but Scottish playwright Giles Havergal's sly adaptation of Graham Greene's comic novel turns stylistic economy into a stylish statement, as it tells the odyssey of a very dull retired bank manager who reunites with his seventy-five-year-old aunt at his mother's cremation, which leads to a considerable change in his life and much excitement.

Cy and Jane Hoffman are well known to Albuquerque audiences for presenting musicals and plays such as "Laughter on the 23rd Floor" "The Cemetery Club", "No Way to Treat a Lady", The Apple Tree", "Gigi", "Sundown", "Lucky Stiff", "Drowsy Chaperone", The Mikado" "My Favorite Year", "Curtains", "Me And My Girl" to name just a few, and most recently 3 sold-out performances of THE USO show at The Adobe.

They chose to direct this drama because they read TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT a few years ago and loved its off-beat quality - seemingly quiet conservative people who wind up in situations involving great risk and adventure. Cy says "One day, I saw an article about Giles Havergal's adaptation of the book into a play with four actors playing twenty-three roles - a real challenge for the actors and the directors. We are still not quite sure how to direct some parts of the play, but that is what makes it fun; we will figure it out during rehearsals in collaboration with the actors. This should be an adventure for the audience too!"

TRAVELS WITH MY AUNT runs at North 4th Art Center, 4904 4th St. NW, 4 weekends, from February 22nd - March 17th, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM, Sunday matinees at 2 PM. For more information, season and individual tickets, go to www.westendproductions.org or call (505) 404-8462.