HARVEY Set to Open at Long Beach Playhouse This Spring

What is the definition of sanity? Or reality? Or friendship and family? Those questions are central to Harvey, the classic story of the perfect gentleman, his invisible friend Harvey, a 6'8” tall white rabbit, and his sister who is embarrassed by her brother's insistence that his invisible friend is real.  Written in 1944, by playwright Mary Chase, the Pulitzer Prize winning play remains popular with audiences the world over.

Elwood P. Dowd is the central character. His sister Veta loves her brother, but at times finds him embarrassing. It's one thing to talk about Harvey in private, it's a whole other to bring him to social gatherings and speak of him as if he were real. She decides the only reasonable thing to do is have Elwood placed in a sanitarium. When she explains her issues to the people at the sanitarium they believe she is the one who needs their services. When Elwood comes to visit his sister, we begin to see that we all need a friend like Harvey in our lives.

“Veta works hard to maintain the family's social status,” Sean Gray, the Playhouse's Producing Artistic Director explains, “She likes to entertain at the family's mansion. Elwood's one-sided conversations interfere with her plans, and in her mind, could interfere with her efforts to find a suitable husband for her daughter.

“She fails to see the charm in Elwood's behavior and never imagines others might wish to get to know the invisible rabbit better.”

While Harvey is never visible, certainly a hat with two holes for ears, and doors that open and close with no one visibly present begin to make the audience wonder if he isn't real.

Madison Mooney, Playhouse Executive Director observes, “The play, comedy that it is, brings up serious considerations about the nature of reality, and maybe our need to believe in things we cannot see. There's a reason this 82-year-old show remains popular.”

This production of Harvey is directed by Bob Fetes, a veteran actor who's appeared on many stages in Southern California and is the Managing Director of the Newport Theater Arts Center. In his Director's Notes, Fetes says the play is not simply about an invisible rabbit, it's about how we treat each other.

The show's ten-member cast includes one actor, Patrick Frazier, making his Playhouse debut.  Returning actors are Tod Walker, Harriet Whitmyer, Aaron Izbicki, Jill Prout, Talitha Barkow, Robb Tracy, Judy Jones, Demetri Mack, and Phyllis Nofts.