Happenings at MetroStage

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Notes from the Producer

Eclectic theatre in an intimate theatre space is our "mantra" here at MetroStage. We love our small musicals, our quirky little plays, our parodies of Broadway composers and, of course, Tom Stoppard, the playwright who has been called the "master of the English language." Several years ago we produced a little gem of a play called "Heroes." Although only translated by Stoppard from the French, it had Stoppard’s signature style and language. The three old soldiers played by Ralph Cosham, Michael Tolaydo and John Dow, captured the hearts and imagination of our audience, as well as the Helen Hayes judges who attended. Our brilliant little ensemble of three received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Resident Production, in a field of over 180 eligible professional productions in the Washington, D.C., metro area, and the award is proudly on display on our box office counter.

This spring our "heroes" have returned to MetroStage for another Tom Stoppard play — this time with five supporting actors (if you include the corpse) to help solve this classic English manor murder mystery. Over 40 years ago Stoppard wrote "The Real inspector Hound," which is a send up of a murder mystery best exemplified by Agatha Christie’s long running play "The Mousetrap," but also skewers the classic overbearing theatre critic so it is really grand fun on many levels. Since we have all been skewered at one time or another by theatre critics, it is particular fun for theatre producers and playwrights to turn the tables on the critics on occasion.

John Vreeke, a favorite MetroStage director, is back to direct another Stoppard with a remarkable cast of characters played by some of Washington’s favorite actors. Every English mystery has to have a Manor, in this case Muldoon Manor, and, of course, it is "secluded" and surrounded by "desolate marshes." In fact, it is said that there are "no roads leading from the manor, though there are ways of getting to it, weather permitting." Theatre critics Moon and Birdboot review this "play within a play" and unwittingly become involved. The audience will get to know the Lady of the Manor, Lady Cynthia Muldoon, and her younger friend, Felicity Cunningham, Major Magnus Muldoon, " the crippled half-brother of her ladyship’s husband who had turned up out of the blue from Canada just the other day," a mysterious stranger Simon Gascoyne, an Inspector Hound who arrives in swamp boots but is he Real (?), and the ubiquitous housekeeper, Mrs. Drudge. And last but not least a Corpse because there is a mystery to be solved. It is quite a collection of characters and a wonderful cast. MetroStage will be hosting this house party through May, and you won’t want to miss it because how else will you find out the true identity of the Corpse!


- Carolyn Griffin

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