Everyman Theatre is pleased to announce its stimulating 2006-07 season.  It is in many respects a season of firsts.  It is the first year Everyman is producing its first comedy of manners – Sheridan's School for Scandal.  It is the first year that it is offering two Baltimore/Washington premieres:  Michael Hollinger's brand new play about a famous string quartet, Opus, and Lee Blessing's gripping tale of two mothers, Going to St. Ives.  Rounding out the season are two British plays, And A Nightingale Sang by C.P. Taylor and Harold Pinter's Betrayal.   In another first for the theatre next year, it will offer a cabaret series under the direction of local favorite, Judy Simmons.

 

Here is more detail about each of the productions next season:

 

OPUS ~ A Baltimore/Washington Premiere!

By Michael Hollinger

September 5 – October 15, 2006

 

Violist turned playwright, Michael Hollinger's latest play captures all the richness and power of great music.  With only a few days to rehearse Beethoven's Opus 131, a renowned string quartet struggles to prepare for their highest profile performance ever.  Their rehearsal room becomes a pressure cooker as passions rise, personalities clash, and the players are forced to confront the ephemeral nature of their life's work.  This elegant and provoking piece is the latest from the author of Red Herring.

 

THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL

by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

November 7 – December 17, 2006

(Thanksgiving performance replacement will be Friday Nov. 24 at 2:30pm)

 

A comedy of manners, set in the high fashion of London in 1775, THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL is a hilarious comedy of cunning and deceit.  Brothers Joseph and Charles Surface are orphans in the care of their uncle, Sir Peter Teazle.  Both brothers wish to marry the beautiful Maria.  Lady Sneerwell, a malicious gossipmonger, wants to marry Charles and spreads false rumors about an affair between Charles and Lady Teazle in an attempt to make Maria reject Charles.  Meanwhile, Joseph is attempting to seduce Lady Teazle.  The brothers have a rich uncle, Sir Oliver, whom they have never met, and who visits them both incognito to test their characters before deciding which of them shall inherit his fortune.  Rumors fly, innuendo pervades, and a situation comedy arises from outrageous characters having their way creating a school for scandal. 

 

GOING TO ST. IVES ~ A Baltimore/Washington Premiere!

By Lee Blessing

January 16 – February 25, 2007

 

May N'Kame, the mother of an African dictator, travels to England to see Dr. Cora Gage about medical treatment for her failing eyesight. Dr. Gage uses the consultation as an opportunity to raise the issue of the imprisonment of some of her colleagues. Meanwhile, May N'Kame's true motive in visiting the doctor is to obtain a poison with which to kill her murderous son. GOING TO ST. IVES is the story of two impressive women brought together by that which is personal and divided by that which is political as both seek to accomplish the greatest good.

 

AND A NIGHTINGALE SANG

by C.P. Taylor

March 20 – April 29, 2007

(Additional performance on April 19 at 7:30pm)

 

This bittersweet romantic farce with music shows the lives of a working class family set against the backdrop of World War II England.   The oldest daughter, Helen, takes us through the story in her home town of Newcastle-on-tyne.  She is convinced that men will never pay attention to her like her sister until one day Norman comes into her life.  A beautiful, heartfelt play, And a Nightingale Sang doesn't miss a beat as the action moves to a comic high-boil with the lovable members of the Stott family.

 

BETRAYAL

by Harold Pinter

May 15 – June 24, 2006

(Tuesday 7:30pm performances available for this show)

 

The play begins in the present, with the meeting of Emma and Jerry, whose adulterous affair of seven years ended two years earlier. Emma's marriage to Robert, Jerry's best friend, is now breaking up, and she needs someone to talk to. Their reminiscences reveal that Robert knew of their affair all along and, to Jerry's dismay, regarded it with total nonchalance. Thereafter, in a series of contiguous scenes, the play moves backward in time, from the end of the Emma-Jerry affair to its beginning, throwing into relief the little lies and oblique remarks that, in this time-reverse, reveal more than direct statements, or overt actions, ever could.

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