The cast has been announced for the second production this season in Mount Vernon Lisbon Community Theatre’s Elliott Studio Series. Two hour-long plays–No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre (adapted by S. Gilbert) and The Criminals (adapted by Adrian Mitchell)—will be performed “in the round” onstage at the Uptown Theatre in the First Street Community Center, Mount Vernon May 16 – 19.
“Hell is other people.” In No Exit, a valet ushers three recently deceased people into a room in Purgatory. All three require another person for self-definition, yet each is most attracted to the person most likely to cause discomfort. Their inablility to escape from each other guarantees their eternal torture. The cast includes James McIntyre, Jennifer Smith, Jennifer Beall, and Courtenay Baker. Grant Freeman is directing.
The Criminals opens with Lala and his sisters, Cuca and Beba, stuck in a basement creating a play-within-a-play to act out the murder of their parents. Playing all the roles in the show, they take us from the killing through the press coverage, the investigation, the arrest and trial. The play adds and subtracts as it reaches its inevitable conclusion. Written in the 1950s, the play looks at power structures inherent in destructive political systems, using the children as a metaphor for the first Cuban Revolution. The cast includes Jackson Bartelme, Mary Morgan-Blacharski, and Genesis Hartle. Grant Freeman is directing, assisted by Jennifer Smith.
MVLCT’s Elliott Studio Series gives space in the theatre season for directors to produce shows with small casts and few set requirements. For a full description with requirements for applicants, go to mvlct.com.