www.rudemechanicals.com (301)317-9438
For immediate release
The Rude Mechanicals are proud to announce their seventh show, “The Lion in Winter,” by James Goldman. Directed by Jaki Demarest.
November 2, 3, 9, 10, 16 & 17th at 8 PM
Laurel High School
8000 Cherry Lane, Laurel, MD
(301)317-9438 for reservations and directions
The Rude Mechanicals will present The Lion in Winter at Laurel High School on November 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, and 17. All performances begin at 8 PM. Tickets are $10; $5 for students and senior citizens.
Lion tells the story of Henry II, his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their sons Richard, John, and Geoffrey, in their battles for the crown of England. Henry wants John to be king, and Eleanor wants Richard. The fate of France hangs in the balance under its new king, Philip, who must make an alliance by the marriage of his sister, Alais. Yet it is not a play about ambition or war. It is a play about family, children, and mortality.
Says director Jaki Demarest, “James Goldman describes The Lion in Winter as a comedy. I disagree. Like Romeo and Juliet or The Cherry Orchard, it might have started out that way. But what it attains is something altogether richer, darker, more complex, with an deliberately unsettled and less than happy ending. The emotional ambiguity of the piece lends itself to real, gutsy and three-dimensional choices and characterizations, of a kind too many community theater troupes miss.
“A larger, better established troupe has expectations to contend with, a certain mold to have to fit. The Rude Mechanicals are rebels. We reject the mold, because we have that freedom. I’d rather see my actors fail with an interesting choice than succeed with a safe one. And we’re drawing an audience of like-minded rebels, sophisticated and savvy. We’re a forum for challenging ideas, for lovers of Shakespeare, for method workshops, for love of the craft, for theater that truly ‘holds the mirror up to nature.’ For a kind of theater you won’t see anywhere else.”
“The Rude Mechanicals,” to quote the Washington Post’s Michael Toscano, “are neither. [They] have set a high standard for making the classics available to local audiences.”
We want to take the classics we love and make you see in them all the life, humor, grief and passion that we do. If we have a single driving creed, for acting and for life, it’s that anything worth doing is worth doing well.
Thank you, and I hope to see you there.
Jaki Demarest