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1985-1986 Season

1985-1986 Season

Sullivan & Gilbert
Book by Kenneth Ludwig
Music by Sir Arthur Sullivan
Lyrics by William S. Gilbert
Directed by Larry Carpenter
Sept. 28 — Oct. 20, 1985
The Huntington Theatre

Near the end of their collaboration, and still smarting from their famous carpet quarrel, W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan have neither seen nor spoken with each other in months. Now they must supervise a rehearsal for a revue of their comic operas, a command performance for Queen Victoria. The underprepared show is set to open in about eight hours. Sullivan has been ill and has missed most of the rehearsals; and he’s in love with pretty Violet Russell, a young soprano of whom Gilbert disapproves. To make matters worse, Sullivan has invited Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh (and son of the Queen), to join the cast. The eager duke can’t sing, dance or remember his cues. When Gilbert finds out, he’s furious. With a company of temperamental actors to manage, and their producer, Richard D’Oyly Carte, breathing down their necks, there is plenty for the two men to fight about. But their admiration for each other as collaborators and friends wins the day.

The Misanthrope
by Molière
Translated by Richard Wilbur
Directed by Edward Gilbert
Nov. 30 — Dec. 22, 1985
The Huntington Theatre

The Misanthrope is a 17th-century comedy of manners that satirizes the hypocrisies of French aristocratic society. The play differs from other farces at the time by employing dynamic characters like Alceste and Célimène as opposed to the traditionally flat characters used by most satirists to criticize problems in society. It also differs from most of Molière’s other works by focusing more on character development and nuances than on plot progression. Though not a commercial success in its time, the play survives as Molière’s best known work today.

The Birthday Party
by Harold Pinter
Directed by Ben Levit
Jan. 11 — Feb. 2, 1986
The Huntington Theatre

The Birthday Party is the second full-length play by Harold Pinter and one of his best-known and most-frequently performed plays. After its hostile London reception almost ended Pinter’s playwriting career, it went on to be considered “a classic.” It tells the story of Stanley Webber, an erstwhile piano player in his 30s, who lives in a rundown boarding house, run by Meg and Petey Boles, in an English seaside town, “probably on the south coast, not too far from London”. Two sinister strangers arrive suspiciously on his birthday and appear to have come looking for him, turning Stanley’s apparently innocuous birthday party into a nightmare.

Saint Joan
by George Bernard Shaw
Directed by Jacques Cartier
March 8 — March 30, 1986
The Huntington Theatre

Based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc and published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, Saint Joan dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Playwright George Bernard Shaw studied the transcripts and decided that the concerned people acted in good faith according to their beliefs. As he famously wrote in his preface to the play:

There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all [there is] about it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concern us.

On the Verge, or, The Geography of Yearning
by Eric Overmyer
Directed by Pamela Berlin
May 24 — June 15, 1986
The Huntington Theatre

The basic plot of the play follows the adventures of three Victorian women explorers into what they believe to be Terra Incognita, a new, unexplored land. The three are from very different exploration backgrounds but all exhibit their own form of independence. From the world in general and specifically men. The three together discuss many aspects of their pasts in exploring, with Mary and Fanny frequently trying to outdo each other. As the ladies progress on their travels it becomes apparent that they are not on an ordinary journey.