Florida Rep Gains National Attention

By: Beau Higgins Jan. 19, 2009

Fort Myers' own Florida Repertory Theatre was featured in the January 16th edition of the Wall Street Journal in a review of its current production, Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel (playing thru Feb. 1.)

Acclaimed drama critic, Terry Teachout was in attendance for the opening, and calls the production a "modern masterpiece...sympathetic...profoundly satisfying...a model of creative taste."

"It truly is an honor," said Producing Artistic Director, Robert Cacioppo. "It is a wonderful thing for Florida Rep to be recognized on a national level, and the work that Mr. Teachout continues to do for regional theatre is remarkable. In times like these, especially, it is crucial that arts organizations have an advocate like him spreading the word about what we do in our communities."

In an interview with Florida Weekly, Teachout told Nancy Stetson that the Wall Street Journal began an experiment few years ago, sending him out into the country to cover regional theatre.

"My purpose is to try to cover a very wide swath of American theater; not just the well-known regional companies, but smaller ones - and to cover all parts of the United States, he continued. "Florida Rep has always been on my list. It's obviously a company of real substance. And they've been on my scope for quite a while."

In his review Teachout compared the play to the brilliance of Chekov and Tennessee Williams, calling it "a cross between Three Sisters and The Glass Menagerie." The Tony Award-winning Best Play is a captivating memory play told by Michael Evans, who recalls one boyhood summer spent with his mother and her four maiden sisters in a tiny and impoverished Irish home in 1936. Set against the backdrop of the pagan festival of Lughnasa, the story of change and of one family's bond unfolds as the music of their first wireless set casts its spell under the hot August sun.

Teachout closed his review by saying, "I confess to not having expected to run across so stirring a production of Dancing at Lughnasa a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico. Yet that is what Florida Rep has given us, and anyone unlucky enough not to have seen this modern masterpiece should make haste to Fort Myers, where the weather is warm and the theater fine."

Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel plays at Florida Rep through February 1st. Performances are Tues. - Sat. at 8pm, with 2pm matinees on Wed., Sun. and selected Saturdays.

Tickets ($20, $35, $39) are now available online at www.floridarep.org, or by calling the box office at 239-332-4488.

Florida Repertory Theatre is located on Bay Street between Jackson and Hendry in the Historic Arcade Theatre in the Fort Myers River District.

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