Middlebury Acting Company is proud to announce the Vermont premiere of Wharton Between the Sheets, by Massachusetts-based playwright Anne Undeland.
Wharton Between the Sheets takes us to Paris in 1908 and brings together novelist Edith Wharton, her dear friend Henry James, her lover Morton Fullerton, and her Irish lady’s maid in an eyebrow-raising retelling of Wharton’s actual mid-life romance. A literary and historical banquet of language, sex, mores and manners, Between the Sheets sparkles with wit while it examines class differences and the complexity of human relationship. More than anything, the play makes us fall in love — with Edith Wharton, with the people in her life, and best of all, with her own glorious writing.
The author of such classics as Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. She was born into immense privilege at a time when women of her class were not formally educated and were expected to have no ambition beyond making an advantageous marriage. Edith broke the norms of her generation and evolved into a writer of genius, as well as a friend and confidante of the best literary minds of her time. She spent much of her life in France and when WWI broke out, instead of fleeing as many did she devoted herself to service behind the front lines.
But it is Edith’s search for love that Anne Undeland’s brilliant play explores. Her marriage was painfully disappointing, and the emotional and physical awakening provoked by her mid-life affair with Fullerton was revelatory. The fallout of that intense relationship makes for a fascinating exploration of love in all its forms as well as its relationship to her art.
Vermont actors Chris Caswell and John Nagle play Edith and Henry James, respectively, and New York City-based actor Jacob A. Ware plays the elusive and seductive Morton Fullerton. Julia Jean Sioss, a New York actor with roots in Vermont, plays Edith’s Irish ladies’ maid, Posy.
Don’t miss this sumptuous literary and visual feast, accompanied by the music of French composers Satie, Debussy, Ravel and Saint Saens, opening on May 9 and playing through May 18 on the MainStage at Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater.
Preview: Thursday, May 8 at 7:30pm - All tickets $20 with post-show feedback opportunity
Regular Performances: Friday-Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2:00pm
Special Event: Sunday, May 11 matinee will feature a post-show talk-back with Professor Brett Millier of Middlebury College, director Melissa Lourie, and playwright Anne Undeland discussing Edith Wharton and her work.
Tickets and information are at: 802-382-9222 or www.townhalltheater.org.
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