history

We’d like you to get to know us a little better, so each month we are featuring a play picked by a different member of the company. Come see what happens when a company member takes on a reading!

This Month: BETSY SCHWARTZ

Set in the 17th Century, Howard Barker's Scenes From An Execution centers around the timeless conflict between an artist's need to be true to herself and the demands of her patron. The story focuses on Galactia, a brilliant and uncompromising artist who has been chosen over her ambitious peers, including her lover Carpeta, to depict the city's finest hour: its glorious triumph in the Battle of Lepanto. Galactia's determination not to glorify the battle but to show the true brutality and horror of war forces a showdown between herself and the state of Venice, resulting ultimately in Galactia's censorship and imprisonment.

Written and performed initially for the radio in 1984, then quickly adapted for the stage two years later, this contemporary classic layers powerful poetic language, seductive ideas and rich, dark humor into a compelling exploration of the conflict between moral responsibility and personal ambition.

Featuring Sheila Daniels, Darragh Kennan, Ray Gonzalez, MJ Sieber, Betsy Schwartz, , Charles Leggett, Gordon Carpenter, Joe Osier, Shawn Belyea, Zoey Belyea, Sara Mountjoy-Pepka

Directed by Peter Dylan O'Connor

Howard Barker is widely considered one of England's most prolific and important contemporary dramatists.

"Good plays are of the moment; great plays are for all time. So it is with Howard Barker's bitterly humorous 20-year-old drama which explores not just the responsibilities of the artist and his or her relationship to the state, but also something which we all face daily......Had Tony Blair seen this play, perhaps he might have hesitated before he took us all off to war.." - Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

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