Post Mortem
by
A R Gurney
Directed by Christine Crawfis
With Elizabeth Barrows, Jack Kroll and Vivian Lambertson
ONE PERFORMANCE ONLY!
April 21, 2007
8 PM
St. Andrew's Church
163 Main Street, New Paltz, NY
Admission: $10
Call 255-3102 for reservations
* * *
Post Mortem is set in the not-too-distant future when the Christian Right hold sway. Alice, a lowly lecturer in drama at a faith-based state university in the Midwest, and Dexter, an enthusiastic student more interested in his teacher than the theatre, become embroiled in the discovery of a play by an obscure late 20th century playwright named A.R. Gurney. When the authorities destroy the script, these two must piece together the play and with it the future of the world gone mad.
Principally known as a practitioner of the “middle-class comedy of manners” ... in recent years he (Gurney) has used the stage for cathartic venting about a world that seems determined to destroy itself...but this latest work deals specifically and wistfully with the role of drama in a culture that has increasingly little respect for it.
….it’s hard not to be infected by the relish with which Mr Gurney rewrites his own past, as well as invents a glorious posterity for himself. Early in the play Dexter talks about coming upon a rare copy of Mr Gurney’s privately printed autobiography, which reveals that he had affairs with many famous actresses, including Cameron Diaz and both Audrey and Catherine Hepburn. Hey, if you’re going to be the author of your own life, you might as well make it juicy.”
Ben Brantley, The New York Times
Click here for the next MMSC performance.
