Gamm Announces Lineup For Upcoming Season - BAD JEWS, RICHARD II, TRAVESTIES, and More!

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre (The Gamm) today announced its Season 36 (2020/21) lineup for theater enthusiasts and first-timers alike. The season includes back-to-back Obie and Tony award-winning plays, a Rhode Island premiere and a regional premiere of two contemporary, critically acclaimed plays, and the first Shakespeare production in The Gamm's Warwick home.

"Three uproarious comedies packed with big ideas, a return to Shakespeare, and a heartfelt tale of life on the margins in today's America, Season 36 promises to be provocative, timely and highly entertaining," Estrella said.

"Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' An Octoroon opens the season during the run-up to our national election, with Tom Stoppard's Travesties following on its heels. Both masterfully comedic works are built around crisis points in world history," Estrella said.

"In the new year we will revisit the work of Joshua Harmon whose Admissions resonated so profoundly with audiences this season. Bad Jews, Harmon's equally surprising and often shockingly dark comedy, looks at family, identity and assimilation today. Shakespeare's Richard II lands in the spring and explores the vexing and timely challenge of how society can enact change in the face of a corrupt and self-serving government. The season finishes with Martyna Majok's powerful contemporary drama Ironbound about immigrant life in America. I cannot wait to share all these stories with you!"

Season 36 includes the 5-play subscription series, as well as It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play adapted by Joe Landry - back by popular demand following last year's critically acclaimed run. Subscriptions range from $170-$285, with discounts for students, seniors and groups of 10 or more.Subscribers can also purchase tickets at a $10 discount for It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play. Information and sales at 401-723-4266 or gammtheatre.org.

AN OCTOROON by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, directed by Joe Wilson, Jr. (Sep - Oct 2020)

Judge Peyton is dead and his plantation, Terrebonne, is in financial ruins. Peyton's handsome nephew George arrives as heir apparent and quickly falls in love with Zoe, a beautiful, one-eighth black "octoroon." But the evil overseer, M'Closky, has other plans for both Terrebonne and Zoe. From the author of Gloria (Gamm 2018) and Appropriate, this raucous, irreverent retelling of a hit 19th-century melodrama is "this decade's most eloquent statement on race in America today." (New York Times)

TRAVESTIES by Tom Stoppard (Oct - Nov 2020)

A bizarre legal bust-up between a British diplomat and the poet James Joyce...A failed production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest...An imagined meeting of three of the 20th century's most important revolutionaries...Musings on art, politics, and immortality...All happening in Zurich during the First World War. From the author of Arcadia (Gamm 2016) and Shakespeare in Love (Oscar, Best Picture) this riotously funny theatrical mash-up is not to be missed!

BAD JEWS by Joshua Harmon (Jan-Feb 2021)

From the author of Admissions (Gamm 2020), a deliciously savage comedy about family, faith and legacy. A beloved grandfather and Holocaust survivor has died, leaving a treasured heirloom with religious significance up for grabs. But who should get it? Volatile, self-described "Super Jew" Daphna, who plans to move to Israel after college; or her wealthy, self-absorbed cousin Liam, an ethnic studies grad student with a secular worldview and a shiksa girlfriend in tow? Then there's Jonah, Liam's younger brother, forced to play peacemaker as the rivals argue, insult, and try to outwit each other to the play's bitter, hilarious end.

RICHARD II by William Shakespeare (Mar 2021)

The tragic life of King Richard II is brought to life in The Gamm's epic and intimate production of Shakespeare's most lyrical and illuminating history play. Convinced of his divine right to rule but blinded by his vanity, Richard recklessly banishes his ambitious cousin Henry Bolingbroke-only to create an enemy who will strip him of his crown, his country and his sense of self. Immerse yourself in this timeless clash of character, politics and power, that asks what happens when leadership puts self-interest above the public good.

IRONBOUND by Martyna Majok (Apr-May 2021)

At a bus stop in a run-down New Jersey town, Darja, a Polish immigrant who gets by on a cleaning job, pragmatism and sheer will, is done talking about feelings. It's time to talk money. Over the course of 22 years, and three relationships, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both. Award-winning playwright Martyna Majok's Ironbound is a darkly funny, heartbreaking portrait of a tough woman for whom love is a luxury - and a liability - and survival is the only measure of success.

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY adapted by Joe Landry (Dec 2020)

Back following last season's smash-hit holiday run! George, Clarence, and the entire town of Bedford Falls come to life in this staged 1940s radio broadcast of Frank Capra's holiday movie classic. With live sound effects and a handful of actors, the story of beleaguered building and loan owner George Bailey and his affable helper angel, Clarence, unfolds one fateful Christmas Eve as you've never seen it before. This captivating, life-affirming story is a holiday treat for the entire family!