First Folio to Open Final Season with JEEVES INTERVENES in November
Returning for their sixth foray into the famous duo are Jim McCance as the perfect butler Jeeves and Christian Gray as the befuddled but ever optimistic Bertie Wooster.
First Folio Theatre is opening their final season by returning to the very first adventure of Bertie and Jeeves: JEEVES INTERVENES, by Margaret Raether, directed by Michael Goldberg. Returning for their sixth foray into the famous duo are Jim McCance as the perfect butler Jeeves and Christian Gray as the befuddled but ever optimistic Bertie Wooster.
Originally mounted in 2008, JEEVES INTERVENES follows the pleasure-seeking and marriage-averse Bertie as he desperately tries to avoid his ferocious Aunt Agatha or "she who chews broken bottles; she who kills rats with her teeth." In tow with Bertie's aunt is Gertrude Winkleswoth-Bode, a strong-minded single woman with a penchant for Nietzsche. However, when Bertie's impecunious pal Eustace Bassington-Bassington becomes smitten with Gertie, Jeeves sees a pathway to avoid disaster...providing they can also avoid Eustace's irascible Scottish uncle, Sir Rupert Watlington-Pipps.
Joining McCance and Gray in the cast are First Folio Artistic Associates Lydia Berger Gray, as the single-minded Gertrude, and Nick Sandys, as the hapless Eustace Bassington-Bassington. Lydia is not only a First Folio favorite, having appeared most recently in Women in Jeopardy, but is also married to leading man Christian Gray. Nick has worked at First Folio as both a director (Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth) and a fight director (Castle of Otranto) as well as an actor (Captain Blood, Much Ado About Nothing).
Rounding out the cast are Jill Shellabarger (last seen at First Folio as Miss Daisy in Driving Miss Daisy) who will play the ferocious Aunt Agatha and Ronald Keaton (last seen in First Folio's award winning Cymbeline: A Musical Folk Tale as well as in his one-man show Churchill) making everyone quake with fear as the stolid Sir Rupert.
Filled with all the sly word play and manic antics you've come to expect, this is the pitch-perfect Jeeves story we all need to lighten our lives. JEEVES INTERVENES previews November 2-4, opens November 5, and runs through December 4, 2022.
First Folio wants to remind audience members that proof of vaccination (2 shots of Moderna/Pfizer/Novavax or 1 shot of J&J) will be required for admission. Audience members will also be required to wear masks at all times inside the building.
All performances take place at the Mayslake Peabody Estate, located at 1717 31st St., off Rt. 83, in Oak Brook. First Folio is easy to get to via the East-West Tollway (I-88) or the Stevenson Expressway (I-55). Free parking is available on the grounds. Preview tickets are $29. Regular priced tickets are $49 on Wednesdays and Thursdays (seniors are $44), and $59 on Fridays through Sundays (seniors are $54). First Folio is also continuing to offer a special $20 Student Ticket for all performances. Three- and four-show subscriptions are available for $75-$180. Season subscriptions and individual tickets are on sale now and may be purchased by calling the box office at 630.986.8067 or online at www.firstfolio.org
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