City of Dreadful Night at The Sherry Theater

The dark and gritty world of the postwar 1940’s combined with Edward Hopper’s city paintings set the scene for Don Nigro’s play, City of Dreadful Night. Not a spoof or an ironic homage, Nigro has crafted a hard-boiled immersion into the shadowy, troubled, yet strangely beautiful world of classic Film Noir. City of Dreadful Night is Nigro’s take on the characters in Edward Hopper’s iconic painting, Nighthawks.

It’s 1948 and Gus, a small time hood in New York City can’t shake the feeling that his girlfriend, Anna, might be hiding something from him. To get some answers, he recruits Tony, a veteran whose noggin was scrambled in the war, to tail her. This leads all three into a dangerous entanglement as secrets begin to emerge from the shadows. Where is Anna’s sister? And how does Philly, who is always behind the counter fit into the picture? Does he hold the key to figuring it all out?

City of Dreadful Night is an edge of your seat tribute to classic Hollywood film-making, full of twists and turns, romance and intrigue.
Don Nigro is among the most frequently published and widely produced playwrights in the world and has continued to build a deeply interrelated and diverse body of dramatic literature, employing a wide variety of dramatic conventions and styles of presentation. He has written monologues and epics, spare realistic dramas and surreal homicidal puppet farces, plays with music and verse plays. This is the third play of his produced by Collaborative Artists Ensemble, previously having produced “Lucia Mad” and the World Premiere of “Lost Generation”.
Collaborative Artists Ensemble was founded in 2007 and is proud to be in its Ninth Season of productions. Previous performances include: the West Coast Premiere of Ingmar Bergman’s “Through a Glass Darkly”, “Blood Relations” by Sharon Pollack, the West Coast Premiere of “A Strange Disappearance of Bees” by Elena Hartwell, Carson McCuller’s lost masterpiece “The Square Root of Wonderful” , “How I Learned to Drive” by Paula Vogel and the World Premiere of “Lost Generation” by Don Nigro.
The cast includes: Chris Caldovino (The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire), Ethan McDowell, Luke Rampersad (Mozart in the Jungle) and Meg Wallace
For more information, please visit their website:

http://www.collaborativeartistsensemble.com


"One of the most innovative, courageous and confident acting companies in the city, if not the country." -- Radomir Luza, theatre critic, NoHo Arts District