For Your (Re)Consideration Series To Present THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT By Edith Wharton

As part of its ongoing For Your (Re)Consideration series, Ghostlight Ensemble will present the recently rediscovered play, The Shadow of A Doubt, by novelist Edith Wharton. This is a co-production with the Richard H. Driehaus Museum.

Set at the turn of the twentieth century, The Shadow of a Doubt, explores the issues surrounding social position, remarriage, the roles of women and euthanasia. Replete with Wharton's trademark wit and skewering of Gilded Age manners, the play centers around nurse Kate Tredennis, who marries John Derwent, a widower of one of Kate's former patients and friends. Elevated into society through her marriage, Kate is a model wife and stepmother, but she feels uneasy with her new position and faces constant scrutiny for her lowlier background. Soon, her unease is manifested when a man from her past casts suspicion on Kate and accuses her in the first Mrs. Derwent's death.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American novelist whose long career included the publication of more than forty books, most notably The Age of Innocence, Ethan Fromme and The House of Mirth. Her stories centered on the American experience of the time and were known for their vivid settings, satiric wit, ironic style and moral seriousness. While still renowned as a novelists, her plays were largely forgotten.

The Shadow of a Doubt was written by Wharton before she became known as a novelist and was slated to appear on Broadway around 1901, but for unknown reasons the run never materialized. After that, the play largely disappeared from all accounts of Wharton's life and career until it was rediscovered in 2017 by scholars Laura Rattray and Mary Chinery, and published in the Edith Wharton Review.

The staged reading takes place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8 in the Nickerson Ballroom at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum (40 East Erie St., Chicago, IL 60611), which was built in 1883 during the Gilded Age era of the play. Audiences will enjoy this immersive location that will act as both stage and scenic backdrop. The reading runs about 90 minutes with an intermission. A brief talkback will follow.