USM Theatre Opens Season With A MONSTER CALLS
Performances run October 24th-November 2nd.
The University of Southern Maine Department of Theatre will present the Maine premiere of A Monster Calls at Russell Hall on the USM Gorham campus October 24th-November 2nd.
Conor has been having nightmares. Or rather, THE nightmare. It jolts him awake every night seven minutes after midnight ever since his mother got sick. Tonight, Conor wakes up to a different nightmare. The ancient Yew Tree in his yard has come to life and demands to be heard. This monster informs Conor that he will tell him three stories, one a night, and all true. After that, Conor must tell his. Conor should be scared. Instead, he is angry. He is angry that his father is gone. He is angry that his grandmother keeps coming to the house and bossing him around. But most of all, he is angry that no one is giving him a choice. A Monster Calls is a stunning spectacle that reckons with love, loss and the stories we tell to make sense of the unimaginable.
Director Rachel Price Cooper says the story, which centers around a 13-year old boy losing his mother to cancer, is deceptively simple. “Death is the great equalizer. We know that ultimately we're going to lose people we love and we just don't like to talk about it.” With expert lighting, projections, sound and costume design from USM faculty and students, Conor's reality is infiltrated by a magical world that ultimately enables him to face what's happening to his mother. Audiences will experience the Monster's 16-foot Yew tree, constructed by Technical Director Andrew Johns and Jesse Murphy, who also plays the Monster. Costume and set design from USM Theatre's Kevin Hutchins blend the real and magical worlds together in stunning detail.
For Price Cooper, this project is a personal one. A Monster Calls began as an idea from her cousin, British writer Siobhan Dowd. When Dowd passed away, author Patrick Ness transformed her ideas into the book that later became the 2016 movie by the same name starring Liam Neeson. The Old Vic Theatre brought it to life on the stage in 2018. USM Theatre's production is the Maine premiere.
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