Peterborough Players Announce Their 85th Summer Season

Following the success of their 2nd Annual Winter, the Peterborough Players are already looking ahead to summer with an announcement of their 2018 Summer Season; their 85th summer on Hadley Road. Their upcoming season promises to have everything audiences have come to love about the Peterborough Players. From known classics and engaging character studies, to a contemporary comedy and a big book musical: Summer 2018 is going to be a season to remember at the Players!

The season begins with Tru, a one-man play adapted from the words and works of Truman Capote playing June 20-July 1. One of the most celebrated writers of the 20th century, Truman Capote was also one of its most complex personalities. His personal dalliances and extravagant lifestyle matched his writing and flair for the dramatic. The wild success of Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood made him a transcendent literary star and gave him entrée to New York's social elite. Until he decided to write about them. Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show.

The Players continue the season with the timely Thornton Wilder comedy, The Skin of Our Teeth playing July 4-15. Meet George and Maggie Antrobus of Excelsior, New Jersey, a suburban, commuter-town couple (married for 5,000 years), who bear more than a casual resemblance to that first husband and wife, Adam and Eve: the two Antrobus children, Gladys (perfect in every way, of course) and Henry (who likes to throw rocks and was formerly known as Cain); and their garrulous maid, Sabina (the eternal seductress), who takes it upon herself to break out of character and interrupt the course of the drama at every opportunity ("I don't understand a word of this play!"). Whether he is inventing the alphabet or merely saving the world from apocalypse, George and his redoubtable family somehow manage to survive - by the skin of their teeth. Written by Peterborough's own Thornton Wilder, this play was the Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The third show of the season sees the Players bringing mystery and intrigue to Hadley Road with J.B. Priestley's An Inspector Calls playing July 18-29. This "whodunit" ran for 8 years in London's West End and the classic thriller's last Broadway revival won 4 Tony Awards. An unexpected knock on the door propels the prosperous Birling family through surprising twists and startling revelations in this award-winning mystery.

The Players once again bring Broadway to Peterborough with the hit musical, The Drowsy Chaperone playing August 1-12. Winner of five Tony Awards, including Best Book and Best Original Score, The Drowsy Chaperone is a loving send-up of the Jazz Age musical, featuring one show-stopping number after another. A musical comedy fan known only as "Man in Chair" puts on his favorite record, the original cast recording of a fictitious 1928 musical called The Drowsy Chaperone, and in an instant the record comes magically to life. His apartment is filled up and swept away by a jazz-age evening of madcap delight. Out of the woodwork come two Broadway stars on the eve of their wedding, a bumbling best man, a desperate theater producer and his moll, a not-so-bright hostess, two gangsters (--or are they pastry chefs?), an aviatrix, a misguided Don Juan and a very heavily intoxicated chaperone.

The fifth play of the season is a classic comedy by master playwright George Bernard Shaw, The Man of Destiny playing August 15-26. Galvanized by victory over the Austrians, the young Napoleon believes he is invincible. At an Italian inn he meets his match, a mysterious young woman, determined to interrupt his rise to power. The resulting sparkling battle of wits, political trickery and sexual intrigue make up Shaw's 90-minute comedy. With this rarely performed romp, the Players completes productions of all four of Shaw's self-described Plays Pleasant: Arms and the Man, Candida, You Never Can Tell and The Man of Destiny.

The Players then present a New Hampshire Premiere with the comedy Sexy Laundry playing August 29-September 9. With a library copy of Sex for Dummies in hand, Alice attempts to re-kindle her decades long marriage to Henry. Over the course of a weekend in a luxury hotel, the couple stumbles over the hilarious and humbling truths of their "long-running" marriage. This adult comedy is for any adult who has ever been married to another adult for a significant amount of time. A hit in Canada, we are thrilled to present the New Hampshire premiere of this comedy!

The season closes with a one-of-a-kind one-man show, The Dork Knight plays September 12-16. A look into one man's obsession with movies about another man's obsession with dressing up like a rodent and punching people, The Dork Knight traces the ups and downs of actor Jason O'Connell's personal and professional life as seen through the prism of his love/hate relationship with the Batman movies. Featuring numerous "cameos" from the bat-voices in his head, O'Connell takes us on a trip down cinematic memory lane that begins with the 1989 Michael Keaton blockbuster, and strolls past George Clooney's bat-nipples, Christian Bale's bat-growl, and a couple of iconic Jokers en route to (sigh) Batfleck. This funny, intimate memoir demonstrates how one's "inner geek" can guide and inspire in good times and in bad.

The season also brings with it 2 plays for children and families performed by the Players Second Company. First is an adaptation of the classic children's book The Wind in the Willows playing June 23-July 21. Then in August, a rollicking musical adaptation of Astrid Lindgren's beloved book, Pippi Longstocking, is brought to life August 18-25.

Subscriptions and passes are on sale now and single tickets for the Main Stage productions go on sale May 21. Single tickets for the Second Company plays are on sale now. For more information on the season and available ticket options, call the Players Box Office at 603-924-7585 or visit them online at www.peterboroughplayers.org.

The Peterborough Players, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization, has been providing professional theatre to audiences since 1933 and are located at 55 Hadley Road, Peterborough, NH.