ARTicles 2-1 - American Repertory Theater

BRITANNICUSat a glanceJanuary 20 –– February 11 • Loeb Stageby Jean Racinetranslated by C.H. Sissondirected by Robert Woodruffset design Riccardo Hernandezcostume design Kaye Voycelighting design Christopher Akerlindsound design David Remediosvideo design Leah GelpeCASTNero Alfredo Narciso*Britannicus Kevin O’Donnell*Agrippina Joan MacIntosh*Junia Merritt JansonBurrhus John Sierros*Narcissus David Wilson Barnes*Albina Adrianne Krstansky*Octavia Megan RothDirector’s SponsorAnonymousProduction SponsorsCharles and Merrill Gottesman Michael JacobsonSYNOPSISAgrippina, widow of the emperor Claudius, has had her son Nero named Emperor of Rome, in placeof Claudius’ son Britannicus. To maintain her hold over Nero, Agrippina has favored the marriage ofBritannicus to Junia, a descendant of the Emperor Augustus. Fearing that such a marriage willstrengthen his rival’s claim to the throne, Nero abducts Junia. He himself then falls in love with her, andwhen she rejects him, he has Britannicus arrested. Agrippina appeals to Nero on behalf of Britannicus,and the court is riven with factions, intrigues, and murder that lead inexorably to a gripping andterrifying conclusion.THE JULIO-CLAUDIAN DYNASTYLivia Drusilla(2)Emperor AugustusScriboniaMessalinaDrusus the Elder(2)Emperor ClaudiusEmperor Tiberius(4)GermanicusJulia the ElderAgrippina the ElderFREE READING OFBRITANNICUSin FrenchMonday, January 29, 7pmWest Lobby, Loeb Drama CenterReception to followKEYBRITANNICUSage 13OctaviaAGRIPPINATHE YOUNGERNEROage 15 age 17Emperor Caligulasibling offspring marriage (n) n th wife line of emperors(1)M. Domitius AhenobarbusThe American Repertory Theatre andSchoenhof's Foreign Books present afree reading of Jean Racine'sBritannicus in French. Please join usfor a reading of the script in its originallanguage followed by a brief discussionabout Robert Woodruff's contemporarystaging of the play.Afterwards, the CulturalServices of the FrenchConsulate will host areception with complimentarybeveragesand hors d'oeuvres.ARTicles3

Falling from Grace bySarah WallaceIn 1663 Jean Racine wrote two odes honoringLouis XIV: “On the Convalescence of the King”and “The Fame of the Muses.” These worksearned him the privilege to witness the king’s awakeningin his private chamber. Louis XIV granted theprivilege to attend this solemn ceremony, a majorritual of his court, only to those he deemed worthyof his esteem, usually those with the bluest blood.In a world that rested on the approval of one man,Racine’s participation in this custom symbolized hissuccess.Conforming to the King’s whims was essentialto anyone who wished to advance in society.Pleasing the crown was more important to anartist’s career than winning the public and critics.Racine had both the talent and disposition of acourtier, and he rose quickly in the King’s favor. Ashe ascended the ranks of venerated artists, he witnessedthe inner workings of Louis’ reign.Britannicus reflects what Racine observed atcourt, and the play functions as a double caveat toLouis XIV. Racine uses the Roman EmperorNero’s fall from grace as a warning to Louis of thedangers of being swayed by bad advisors as wellas the ebbing of morality as power is gained.The parallels between the world ofBritannicus and the seventeenth-century Frenchcourt are striking, particularly the similaritiesbetween Nero and Louis. Racine dramatizes themoment when Nero transforms into a monster. Inhis first preface to the play he wrote, “I alwaysthought that the very name Nero conjures somethingworse than cruel.” The play does not proposethat Louis XIV is a tyrant, only that he has thepotential to become one. Racine suggests inBritannicus that Louis must make the decision notto follow the path Nero descends.Racine’s knowledge of Nero stemmed fromhis days as a student at the finest schools inFrance, where education focused on classic texts.Students composed prose and poetry in Frenchand Latin, using ancient Roman and Greek worksas models. To write Britannicus, Racine neededonly to look back on the plays and histories he hadread years earlier. In these Latin sources ––Tacitus’ Annals, Seneca’s De Clementia,Suetonius’ The Twelve Caesars –– Racine foundhis dramatic material.The parallels between Nero and Louis XIVbegin from the earliest days of their reigns. Bothmen ascended the throne in their youth –– Nero at4ARTiclesseventeen, Louis at four. The most striking similaritybetween the two, however, is that while bothmen were known as absolute monarchs, they heldlittle power in the early days of their sovereignty.Nero ceded control to his mother Agrippina, andLouis to his mother, Anne of Austria and CardinalMazarin, the prime minister.Nero owed his crown entirely to his mother.Machiavellian to the extreme, Agrippina lied, cheated,murdered, and slept her way to the highest echelonsof Rome to install her son on the throne overothers who held higher claims to it (includingBritannicus). In the earliest days of his reign, Nerowas emperor in name only; Agrippina ran the show.The first years of Nero’s rule, considered a highpoint in the Empire, succeeded due to her cunning.In Britannicus, Agrippina claims there was a time,“when the young Nero/ passed the court’s adorationonto me,/ when the whole burden of state fellupon me,/ when it was my order assembled thesenate,/ and, hidden from view/ in its deliberationsI was all powerful.” Nero, however, was not contentto rule as a figurehead.Eventually he turned onhis mother, assassinatedher, and assumed absolutepower.The relationshipbetween Louis XIV andhis mother, Anne ofAustria, never reachedthis level of tumult. Whileshe wielded enormouspower over him, and thusover France, their relationshipremained relativelyamicable until herdeath. Anne, however,never exerted the samecontrol as Agrippina.Primary responsibility fellto Cardinal Mazarin, whoenjoyed a close relationshipwith the Queen.Mazarin exerted greatinfluence over Louis, behaving like a surrogatefather. In 1660 Venetian ambassador GiovanniBatista Nani claimed, “the young king looks up tohis mother with the greatest respect and neverdistances himself from her authority and her advice. . . but all his affection seems to be devoted to thecardinal [Mazarin]. . . . There is a deep sympathy,a submission of minds and intellects.” Louis did nothave to assume the burden of ruling until Mazarin’sdeath in 1661.With Mazarin and Anne running the country,Louis was free to chase sensuous pleasures ––women and art. The king pursued both with gusto.A patron of the arts, Louis fancied himself an artist.As a young man he participated in numerous ballets,most famously the Ballet de la nuit in which hedanced the part of the sun, immortalizing him as“the Sun King.” He pursued women with equalardor, yet his paramours rarely left an impressionon him. The exception was Mazarin’s niece, MarieMancini, to whom he developed a deep attachment.After his marriage to Maria-Teresa of Spainwas arranged, Marie was forced to leave court.Her departure created animosity between Louisand his mother; Anne insisted he forgo his mistressin favor of a political marriage.Racine echoed these aspects of Louis’ life inBritannicus, adjusting similarities into his chronicleof Nero’s fall. Nero also saw himself as an artist,developing a passion for numerous musical instruments.He often forced his court to attend concertswhere he performed for hours. Racine dramatizesthat Nero lives for, “throwing his voice away uponthe stage,/ reciting his poems he wants thoughtmasterpieces,/ while soldiers are there to makesure the crowd/ will all the time bellow out itsapplause.” He too engaged in numerous loveaffairs. While his obsession with Junia inBritannicus is Racine’s invention, his appetite forwomen was not. He ignored his wife Octavia for abevy of concubines, from slaves to noblewomen.Racine emphasized these parallels inBritannicus because Louis’ reign hung in a moralbalance. After Mazarin’s death, a struggleemerged over who would gain the King’s ear.Nicholas Fouquet, superintendent of finances,expected to be made head of government.Apprehensive of Fouquet’s drive for power, Louisdeclared he would fill this function, transforminghimself into an absolute monarch. He followedMazarin’s credo, “do not let yourself be governed,be the master; never have either favorites or aprime minister, listen to, consult your council, butdecide yourself: God, who has made you a king,will give you the necessary wisdom so long as yourintentions are good.”Britannicus supports thisphilosophy, yet Racine wasstill wary of his King. LikeNero, he could commitdepraved acts in the name ofhis country and think himselfin the right. Racine’s playclaims that Louis had thepotential to become a tyrantand dramatizes the moralbattle raging in his soul.Racine’s anxiety overLouis’ morality came from notonly concern for France butalso from a more personalplace. Racine struggled withhis own morality throughouthis adult life; he believed thata moral life was religious, animmoral life, secular. Thisphilosophy grew from hisupbringing as a Jansenist atPort-Royal, a convent-village outside Paris.Jansenism was a branch of Catholicism thatemphasized original sin, human depravity, thenecessity of divine grace, and predestination. Itmaintained a tragic theology –– one must strugglein an evil world dominated by selfishness andgreed without hope of victory.Acts were good if performedout of love for Godand sinful if performed out oflove for self. Aesthetic andsensual pleasures weretaboo; theatre in particularrevolted the Jansenists.Although the Vatican condemnedJansenism asheretical, pressuring LouisXIV to put a stop to it, thisworld view shaped Racine’s.Throughout his childhoodand youth, Racinelived faithfully by theseideas. Once in Paris, however,he emancipated himselffrom the religion that hadpreviously guided his life. Hisrise in status at the Frenchcourt came at expense of hisrelationship with Port-Royal.His former teacher, PierreNicole, publicly stated thatnovelists and playwrightswere the moral equivalent ofa “public poisoner.” Racine claimed, “I keep getting[from Port-Royal] every day letter after letter, or, toput it better, excommunication after excommunicationon account of my unlucky sonnet.” This“unlucky sonnet” references a poem he wrote forMazarin which enraged the Jansenists, who hadbeen persecuted by the Prime Minister.Even as his success in Paris grew, his yearsas a devout Jansenist never left him. He wrote,“My God, what a bitter war! There are twomen within me: one that wishesthat my heart, filled with love for Thee, shouldremain loyal to Thee. Theother, rebelling against Thy will, turns meagainst Thy law. The former,spiritual and celestial, would that, constantlyturned to heaven and affectedby eternal values alone, I disregarded all else,while the latter drags me downto earth with its terrible weight. Alas, wherecan I find peace in this war withmyself? I am all desire but, oh wretch that Iam, I do not do the good that Ilove and do the evil I hate.”He eventually renounced the theatre and dedicatedhimself fully to religious devotion. This religiousrebirth damaged his relationship with the King.Britannicus reflects characters morally at warwith themselves or at the precipice of a fall fromgrace. Even as Racine engaged in numerousromantic liaisons and profited as a playwright,devotion to the flesh and the arts disturbed him. InBritannicus, he addressed this moral dichotomyas well as his political concerns. He created a Neroin the image of Louis XIV, who existed at the dawnof his despotism. Racine stated of Nero, “I havealways thought of him as a monster. But here he isa budding monster.” Fearful of the monster in himself,fearful of the monster in the King, Racinehoped to prevent a descent into vice. WhenBritannicus premiered in 1669, Louis still had timeto reign as a moral, if absolute monarch.Sarah Wallace is a first-year dramaturgystudent at the A.R.T./MXAT Institutefor Advanced Theatre Training.top left: Jean Racine (1639-99).above left: Nero orating as a child.below: Louis XIV on horseback.

W E L C O M E T O T H E W I N T E R A C T I N G C O M PA N YBRITANNICUS Acting CompanyDAVID WILSON BARNES* — NarcissusA.R.T.: Olly’s Prison (Frank). New York:The Lieutenant of Inishmore,Broadway; Saint Crispin’s Day,Rattlestick Theatre; Men WithoutShadows, Flea; Jersey Story, CherryLane; The Square, Ma Yi/The PublicTheatre; Hamlet, The Public Theater;Mirandolina, The Pearl; The CaucasianChalk Circle and The Bald Soprano, La Mama, ETC; HeddaGabler, Horace Mann Theatre. Resident credits: The Scene, RedHerring, Quake, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville; John Bull’s OtherIsland, GeVa Theatre; Chesapeake, The City Theatre; Greetings,Virginia Stage Co.; The Story, Long Wharf; The Best Man, The Lionin Winter, Cape Playhouse. Television: Law and Order, L & O:Criminal Intent, L & O: Special Victims Unit, Conviction, Sex and theCity. Film: Capite, How to Seduce Difficult Women, Ozark Savage,Extreme Moon.MERRITT JANSON — JuniaA.R.T.: The Onion Cellar. Second-yearacting student at A.R.T./MXAT Institutefor Advanced Theatre Training. Institutecredits: Zoya’s Apartment (Zoya); Warand Peace (Natasha/Countess Rostov).Regional: Tuesday (2005 BarrymoreAward - Outstanding Ensemble),Amaryllis Theatre Co., Philadelphia;HurlyBurly (Bonnie), Drive to a Departing Flight (Maggie),Adrienne Theatre, Philadelphia. New York: Three Years from Thirty(Ashley), Pantheon Theatre; Daddy Longlegs in the Evening (Kate),Chashama; Cavalleria Rusticana, Opera of the Hamptons. Film:Mail Order Wife (Best American Film - 2005 Santa BarbaraInternational Film Festival), First Independent Pictures; Otto andAnna.ADRIENNE KRSTANSKY* — AlbinaA.R.T.: Ubu Rock (QueenRosamund). Other: Laundry andBourbon, Young Vic, London; Luck,Pluck and Virtue, Atlantic Theaterand La Jolla Playhouse; A ClockworkOrange and Twelfth Night,Steppenwolf Theatre; Closer,Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre;Frozen, New Repertory Thaetre; Bug, Boston TheaterWorks;Danny and the Deep Blue Sea, Vineyard Playhouse; among others.She directed the New England premiere of Thom Pain:Based on Nothing at New Repertory Theatre, and teaches actingat Brandeis University.JOAN MACINTOSH* — AgrippinaA.R.T.: The Balcony (Mme. Irma.)Broadway: Orpheus Descending, OurTown, The Seagull, Abe Lincoln inIllinois. New York Shakespeare Festival:Alice in Concert, Dispatches, ThreeActs of Recognition, A Bright RoomCalled Day, Julius Caesar, Cymbeline,All’s Well that Ends Well, Macbeth,365 Days/365 Plays. New York Theatre Workshop: More StatelyMansions (OBIE Award, Drama League Award, The Herald AngelAward: Edinburgh Festival.), Alice in Bed, with Ivo van Hove and theToneelgroep Amsterdam in New York, Holland, and Belgium. OffBroadway: Request Concert (Drama Desk Award), Night Sky,Endgame, A Shayna Maidel. Resident theatre: King Lear, HeddaGabler, Three Sisters, Plenty, Happy End, Les LiasonsDangereuses, Sore Throats, By the Bog of Cats, Elizabeth I:Almost by Chance a Woman. The Performance Group: Dionysus in‘69 (OBIE), Commune (OBIE), The Tooth of Crime (OBIE), MotherCourage, The Marilyn Project, Seneca’s Oedipus. Ms. MacIntoshhas also won the OBIE for Sustained Excellence of Performance.She has received the John D. Rockefeller III, USIA, ITI, and SpencerCherashore grants for her work as an actress and writer, and is a FoxFellow. She has taught acting all over the world, and has a healingpractice. Television: The West Wing, Law and Order, Lincoln andSeward, Fool’s Fire, numerous daytime shows. Film: Awakenings, AFlash of Green, The Confession, Fresh Horses.ALFREDO NARCISO* — NeroBroadway: A Streetcar Named Desire(Roundabout). Off-Broadway: MichaelJohn Garces’ Points of Departure(Intar), Split Wide Open (SPF), GoodThing (New Group). Off-Off-Broadway:Sheila Callaghan’s Dead City (NewGeorges), The Dispute (NAATCO),‘Nami (Partial Comfort Productions), theOBIE-winning Benten Kozo, Baal, A Heartbeat to Baghdad,Transatlantica, and Alice Tuan’s Ajax (Por Nobody) - which also participatedin the 2001 Melbourne Fringe Festival, Au (Flea Theatre).Regional: Olympia Dukakis’ The Tempest Project (Long Wharf), NiloCruz’s A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (STNJ), Much AdoAbout Nothing, Comedy of Errors (Princeton Rep.) Off the Page(2003 HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, CO.). Film/TV: The Guys,Living & Dining, Law & Order, L&O: Criminal Intent, Third Watch,Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn. 2006 recipient of the NewDramatists’ Charles Bowden Award.KEVIN O’DONNELL* — BritannicusOff-Broadway: The Hairy Ape, The IrishRepertory Theatre. Off-Off Broadway:The Comedy of Errors, Gallery Players.Regional: Hamlet (Laertes),Shakespeare & Company; Hurry!, TheGlory of God, and Hamlet (Horatio),The Guthrie Theater; The School forScandal (Charles Surface, with BrianBedford), The Mark Taper Forum; Thief River (Gil/Jody, directed byAndrew Volkoff), Barrington Stage Company; A Midsummer Night’sDream and The Skin of Our Teeth, Chautauqua Theatre Company.Other: Romeo and Juliet (Romeo) with dancers from the AmericanBallet Theatre as part of the Guggenheim Museum’s ‘Works inProcess’ series. Film: Black Irish, Opa, Shaft, A Million Miles An Hour.Television: Comedy Central’s “Strangers With Candy”. Native of theBoston area, received his Literature and Creative Writing BFA fromEmerson College; Graduate of The Juilliard School (Group 33). Hisshort play, No More Static, was commissioned by The GuthrieTheater and produced at The Guthrie Lab; later included in The BestTen-MinutePlays of 2004 for 3 or More Actors, published by Smith andKrause and PlayScripts.net. Penance, his original screenplay wasrecently optioned by MCPFilms of Boston. The film is currentlyscheduled to begin shooting in Massachusetts in the fall of 2007 withMr. O’Donnell playing a starring role.JOHN SIERROS* — BurrhusNew York credits: Hot & Sweet (Joey, dir.John Driver), New York Musical TheaterFestival; Flesh and Blood (Constantine,dir. Dough Hughes; with Cherry Jonesand Martha Plimpton), New York TheaterWorkshop; Agamemmnon (theMessenger, dir. Robert Richmond; withOympia Dukakis and Louis Zorich),Aquila Theater. Regional: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter(Antonopoulos, dir. Doug Hughes), Alliance Theatre/The ActingCompany; Mother Courage (Sergeant, dir. Eric Simonson, with LoisSmith and Sally Murphy), the world premiere of Charles Mee’s TimeTo Burn (the Cop, dir. Tina Landau, Joseph Jefferson Award for BestEnsemble), the Midwestern premiere of The Weir (Brendan, dir. AmyMorton), Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Dylan (Dylan, dir. RogerSmart, Joseph Jefferson Award Best Actor), Seanachai TheaterCompany; the world premiere of Among the Thugs (Mick, dir KateBuckley, Joseph Jefferson Award Best Ensemble), The Next Theatre.Films: Taxi, The Departed (audio dialogue replacement), ProjectGreenlight‘s Stolen Summer, Road to Perdition, the upcoming shortHaber; and in development as actor and executive producer, Gemswith Olympia Dukakis.OLIVER TWIST Acting CompanyREMO AIRALDI* — Mr. BumbleA.R.T.: Fifty productions, including TheOnion Cellar, Island of Slaves, Romeoand Juliet (Peter), No Exit (Valet),Amerika (Captain, Green, Head Porter),Dido, Queen of Carthage (Nurse), TheProvok’d Wife (Constable), The Miser(Master Jacques), The Birthday Party(McCann), A Midsummer Night’s Dream(Francis Flute), Pericles (Fisherman), La Dispute (Mesrou), UncleVanya (Telegin), Marat/Sade (Cucurucu), Enrico IV (Bertoldo), TheWinter’s Tale (Clown), The Wild Duck (Molvik), Buried Child (FatherDewis), Tartuffe (Monsieur Loyal), Henry IV and V (Mistress Quickly),Waiting for Godot (Pozzo), Shlemiel the First (Mottel/MoishePippik/Chaim Rascal), The King Stag (Cigolotti), Six Characters inSearch of an Author (Emilio Paz). Other: Camino Real and Eight byTenn (Hartford Stage), productions at La Jolla Playhouse, GeffenPlayhouse, American Conservatory Theater, Walnut St. Theatre, PrinceMusic Theater, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville, Serious Fun Festival,Moscow Art Theatre, Taipei International Arts Festival, BostonPlaywrights Theatre.STEVEN BOYER* — Noah Claypole/ TomChitlingBroadway: I’m not Rappaport (dir. DanielSullivan), also at Coconut Grove, Ford’sTheatre, Papermill Playhouse. Other NewYork: I Hear Kant, The Mooncalf, WhichWolf is Which, Michael John Graces’Audio/Video, Day. Regional: TheUnderpants, Capitol Repertory; Camille,Bard Summerscape; Act a Lady, Humana Festival-Actors’ Theatre ofLouisville; Dylan’s Line, The Last of the Boys, McCarter Theater; TheDrawer Boy, Merrimack Repertory Theatre; Hamlet, Comedy of Errors,Shakespeare Santa Cruz; Camelot, Berkshire Theatre Festival.Television: Ed, Law and Order, House of Detention (Pilot). BFA fromJuilliard School. Standup comedian and writer, performed at clubs andcolleges around the country, work includes voiceovers and audio books.GREGORY DERELIAN* — BillBroadway: Metamorphoses, Circle in theSquare. Off-Broadway: As You Like It,Henry V, Othello, New York ShakespeareFestival. Resident: Julius Caesar (MarkAnthony), Macbeth (McDuff), Othello(Cassio), The Tempest (Caliban), TheForest (Pyotr), Shakespeare Theatre ofNew Jersey; The Blue Demon (Sultan),Huntington Theatre; The Visit (Mike), Williamstown Theater Festival; TheBirds (Mitch), Yale Repertory Theatre; Lover’s Leap (Ernie), FultonOpera House; Baby With the Bathwater (Daisy), What Exit? TheaterCompany. Films and television: The Pizza Boy, Blur of Insanity, Cinco deMayo, Wanda, All my Children, Guiding Light, As the World Turns. MFAin acting from the Yale School of Drama.THOMAS DERRAH* — Mr. Sowerberry/Mr. GrimwigA.R.T.: The Onion Cellar, Island ofSlaves (Trivelin), Three Sisters(Chebutykin), Carmen (Zuniga), Olly’sPrison (Barry), The Birthday Party(Stanley), A Midsummer Night’s Dream(Nick Bottom), Highway Ulysses(Ulysses), Uncle Vanya (Vanya),Marat/Sade (Marquis de Sade), Richard II (Richard), Mother Courage(Chaplain), Charlie in the House of Rue (Charlie Chaplin), Woyzeck(Woyzeck). Broadway: Jackie: An American Life (twenty-three roles).Off-Broadway: Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas(Johan), Big Time (Ted). Tours with the Company across the U.S., withresidencies in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, andthroughout Europe, Canada, Israel, Taiwan, Japan, and Moscow. Other:I Am My Own Wife, Boston TheatreWorks; Approaching Moomtaj,New Repertory Theatre; Twelfth Night and The Tempest,Commonwealth Shakespeare Co.; London’s Battersea Arts Center; fiveproductions at Houston’s Alley Theatre, including Our Town (Dr. Gibbs,directed by José Quintero); and many theatres throughout the U.S.Awards: 1994 Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence, 2000 and2004 IRNE Awards for Best Actor, 1997 Los Angeles DramaLogue Award(for title role of Shlemiel the First). Television: Julie Taymor’s film Fool’sFire (PBS American Playhouse), Unsolved Mysteries, Del and Alex (Alex,A&E Network). Film: Mystic River (directed by Clint Eastwood). He is agraduate of the Yale School of Drama.NED EISENBERG* — FaginBroadway: The Green Bird. Other:Awake and Sing, Lincoln Center Theatre;Guys and Dolls, Long Wharf Theatre;King John, Titus Andronicus, Theatre fora New Audience; Meshugah, Midnightand Morning Rain, Naked Angels; StreetScene, Williamstown Theatre Festival; TheRed Address, Second Stage; Antigone inNew York, Vineyard Theatre; Pal Joey, City Centre, The Middle ofNowhere, Prince Music Theatre. Films: World Trade Center, Flags ofOur Fathers, Million Dollar Baby, Head of State, Let it Snow, A Civil Action,Winchell, Celebrity, Primary Colors, Last Man Standing, Air America,Hiding Out, Moving Violations, Key Exchange, among many others.Television: Rescue Me, The Jury, Black Donnellys, Cheaters, TheSopranos, The Fanelli Boys, Wonderland, New York Undercover, Law &Order, Law & Order: SVU, LA Law, Crime Story, Miami Vice, LA Dragnet,Whoopi, Ed, Criminal Intent, The Equalizer, among many.CARSON ELROD* — John Dawkins,the Artful DodgerBroadway: Reckless, Noises Off (Tim).Other: House/Garden (Jake), ComicPotential, Manhattan Theatre Club;Cavedweller, New York Theatre Festival;Waiting for Godot (Vladimir), East RiverAmphitheatre; The Cherry Orchard(Yepikodoff) and The Intelligent Design ofJenny Chow (Todd), Yale Repertory Theatre; Misalliance (Gunner),Baltimore Center Stage; Our Town (George), La Jolla Playhouse; TheComedy of Errors (Dromio of Syracuse), The Merry Wives of Windsor(Pistol), Colorado Shakespeare Festival and Shakespeare & Co; Loves’Labour’s Lost (King of Navarre), Shakespeare & Co; Twelfth Night(Feste), Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio), Sedona Shakespeare Festival.Television and film: Out of Practice, Medium, When a Stranger Calls,Carnivale, Girlfriends, Kissing Jessica Stein, Wedding Crashers, amongothers. 1999 Princess Grace Award winner.JENNIFER IKEDA* — NancyBroadway: Seascape (Sarah). NewYork: As You Like It (Celia), The TwoNoble Kisnmen (Jailer’s daughter), AsYou Like It (Audrey, Phoebe, Adam),New York Shakespeare Festival/PublicTheater; Coriolanus, Theatre for a NewAudience; The Square (various), Ma Yi@ the Public Theater. Resident: TheTempest (Miranda), Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey; Romeoand Juliet (Juliet), The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC andShakespeare Festival of St. Louis; Antigone (Ismene), ChauauquaConservatory Theater. Television and film: Guiding Light, HeavyPetting.ELIZABETH JASICKI* — Rose/ CharlotteNew York: Abigail’s Party (with JenniferJason Leigh), New Group, Theatre Row.England: When Harry Met Sallie, WestEnd; As You Like It, Peter Hall Company,Bath Theatre Royal and UK and US tour;The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cancer Tales,Relatively Speaking, Man andSuperman, Jane Eyre, Les LiaisonsDangereuses, David Copperfield, The Wizard of Oz, They’re PlayingOur Song, Beauty and the Beast. USA Tours: Dracula, TheHunchback of Notre Dame, The Canterbury Tales. Film and television:Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry, Room for Uncertainty, Summer Rain,Dinner in Purgatory, La Belle Sans Merci, The Vanishing Man, Watchingthe Detectives; and Buddha of Suburbia for BBC.WILL LeBOW* — Mr. BrownlowA.R.T.: forty-six productions, includingRomeo and Juliet (Capulet), ThreeSisters (Kulygin), No Exit (Garcin),Amerika (Uncle Jacob, Innkeeperess,Head Waiter), Dido, Queen of Carthage(Jupiter), The Miser (Valére), TheBirthday Party (Goldberg), A MidsummerNight’s Dream (Egeus/Peter Quince),Pericles (Cleon/Pandar), Highway Ulysses (ensemble), Uncle Vanya(Serebriakov), Lysistrata (Magistrate), Marat/Sade (Marat), TheDoctor’s Dilemma (Sir Ralph), Nocturne (Father – Drama Desk nomination),Full Circle (Heiner Müller - Elliot Norton Award for best actor),The Merchant of Venice (Shylock), The Marriage of Bette and Boo(Karl), The Imaginary Invalid (title role), Shlemiel the First(Shlemiel/Zalman Tippish — also on tours of the West Coast), The WildDuck (Hjalmar Ekdal), Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Sagot), The KingStag (Brighella — a role he also performed in Taiwan), Six Charactersin Search of an Author (The Father). Other: Love’s Labors Lost, TheRivals and Melinda Lopez’s Sonia Flew (Huntington Theatre), TwelfthNight (Feste, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Brian Friel’sFaith Healer (Gloucester Stage Company), Shear Madness (all maleroles), the Boston Pops premiere of “How the Grinch StoleChristmas”(narrator). Film: Next Stop Wonderland. Television: the CableAce Award-winning animated series Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist(voice of Stanley).KAREN MacDONALD* — Mrs. BumbleA.R.T.: founding member, fifty-nine productions.Recent seasons: The Onion Cellar,Island of Slaves (Euphrosine), Romeoand Juliet (Nurse), No Exit (Estelle, ElliotNorton Award), Olly’s Prison (Ellen, ElliotNorton Award), Dido, Queen of Carthage(Anna), The Provok’d Wife(Madamoiselle, IRNE award), The Miser(Frosine, IRNE award), The Birthday Party (Maguire Award), AMidsummer Night’s Dream (Hypolita/Titania, IRNE award), Pericles(Dionyza), Highway Ulysses (Circe), Uncle Vanya (Marina), Lysistrata(Kalonika), Mother Courage and Her Children (Mother Courage),Marat/Sade (Simone), Othello (Emilia, IRNE award). Director ofDressed Up! Wigged Out!, Boston Playwrights Theatre. New York:Roundabout Theatre, Second Stage, Playwright’s Horizons, and Actors’Playhouse. Regional: The Misanthrope (Arsinöe), Berkshire TheatreFestival; Infestation (Mother), Boston Playwrights Theatre; Hamlet(Gertrude) and Twelfth Night (Maria), Commonwealth ShakespeareCompany; The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Maureen) and The LastNight of Ballyhoo (Boo) Vineyard Playhouse; Who’s Afraid of VirginiaWoolf (Martha, Elliot Norton Award) and Frankie and Johnny in theClair de Lune (Frankie), Merrimack Repertory Theatre; As You Like It(Rosalind), Shakespeare & Co; Shirley Valentine (Shirley), CharlesPlayhouse. Other: Alley Theatre (Company member), the GoodmanTheatre, the Wilma Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Geva Theatre,Syracuse Stage, Buffalo Studio Arena, Cincinnati Playhouse, HartfordStage, Philadelphia Festival of New Plays.CRAIG PATTISON* — Charley BatesRecent credits: Jesus Hates Me, DenverCenter Theatre Company. New York:Moonchildren, Pains of Youth, HERE;Three Birds, Gale Gates; The Maids,Linhart, Twenty Gorilla Killer, Red Room.Other: As You Like It, The Taming of theShrew, The Real Thing, AlabamaShakespeare Festival; Camino Real,Glimmer Brothers, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Williamstown TheatreFestival. Film: The Thing About My Folks, The Franklin Abraham.LUCAS STEELE* — Toby CrackitBroadway: The Threepenny Opera(Harry/Velma), The Roundabout TheatreCompany. Other: Corpus Christie(Joshua), Bouwerie Lane Theatre; Cheri,The Actors Studio; The Little Foxes (Leo),Women’s Project; An Actor Prepares(Trent), Vital Theatre Co.; A Chorus Line(Mark, original choreography), My FairLady, Walnut Street Theater; The Human Comedy, Heart to HeartProductions. He is a singer, plays the piano and the violin, and was amember of a barbershop quartet for four years.MICHAEL WARTELLA* — Oliver TwistNew York: Macbeth (Fléance), ClownShorts, Circle in the Square. Other: OnceUpon a Mattress (Clown), Little Shop ofHorrors (Minstrel), You’re a Good ManCharlie Brown (Snoopy), BarringtonStage Company; Much Ado AboutNothing (Dogberry), Hamlet (Laertes),Henry VI, Part I (Talbot), Shakespeare andCompany; The Gifts of the Magi (Willy Porter), Mixed Company.ARTicles5

OLIVERwith a twistby Sarah OlloveMidway through the first scene of a stagedadaptation of Oliver Twist, CharlesDickens lay down on the floor of his boxand refused to rise until the curtain. Childish?Perhaps. But Dickens saw this production in 1838.The final installment of the novel, published seriallyin Bentley’s Miscellany, appeared in April 1839.George Almar’s Oliver Twist, a Serio-ComicBurletta was one of ten adaptations presentedbefore Dickens’s last chapter reached the public.The Victorians could not wait to see how the storyends. Who could blame them? As the productionhistory of Oliver Twist indicates, Dickens inspiredthe stage as much asthe Victorian theatreinfluenced Dickens.Dickens savoredthe theatre. In schoolhe attended theTheatre Royal atRochester, puppetmasteredmelodramasin a toy theatre,and wrote a tragedyentitled Misnar, theSultan of India.Searching for acareer, he flirted withacting, landing thatimpossibility of allimpossibilities –– anaudition at CoventGarden Theatre,which he missed, citing illness. Even as his careerturned to writing, Dickens stayed close to his earlylove. An avid theatre-goer, he garnered highesteem as an actor in amateur productions forcharity, and watching the audience’s response topublic readings of his novels remained one of hischief delights. These continued until the end of hislife, despite orders from his doctor to ceasebecause when he read certain passages like Sikes’murder of Nancy in Oliver Twist, his pulse skyrocketed.Compared to other literary genres, by the nineteenthcentury the novel had barely reached puberty–– and suffered growing pains. It struggled tobalance the private experience of novel readingwith the theatre’s heritage of public entertainment.In Dickens, Novel Reading, and the VictorianPopular Theatre, Barbara Vlock writes “the ‘drama’was not supplanted by the novel in the nineteenthcentury, but merged with it, enabling the novel to6ARTiclesexist.” Many novelistsincluding JaneAusten, looked totheatrical conventionsas models fortheir own work.Dickens was noexception.W h e nDickens firstarrived in London,only three theatresin the city possessedcharters toproduce legally five act comedies or tragedies.That didn’t stop cunning entrepreneurs from foundingunlicensed theatres, but the law restricted themto musical drama –– especially the popular burletta,a one-act farce with a minimum of five songs.The concept of the burletta eventually expanded toinclude operettas, burlesque, revues, and the melodrama.All these genres relied heavily on music toset the tone, and all mixed the grotesque with thecomic.The novel attempted to find a balance betweenthe private experience of a reader and the idea ofpublic entertainment. Like many other novelists ofhis day, Dickens’s worksread as if meant for agroup, not just as a privatepastime. Readingaloud was a commonpastime in VictorianLondon, where illiteracyruled. Around Dickens’sstudy hung mirrorsangled towards his faceso that the writer couldwatch his own reactionsto his work. If helaughed, a drawingroom party might laugh;if a tear came to his eye,ladies might weep.In addition, manynovels appeared seriallyin newspapers prior totheir completion. This allowed an author to test thewaters before completing a long work. Like anactor adapting his performance based upon audience’sreactions, the novelist had ample opportunityto change his novel based on the reception of thefirst parts. Dickens even changed the end of GreatExpectations to please the public.The Victorian Englishman has a reputation asrepressed, but his taste in entertainment was filledwith emotion. Melodrama reigned as king of theVictorian Stage. Scenes of heightened tragedyalternated with low comedy, and music intensifiedemotions. Visual imagery and stage machineryoften upstaged dialogue. When the modern audiencethinks about melodrama, images of a beautiful,pale woman, swooning in the arms of a handsome–– also pale –– gentleman come to mind. Noone envisions the following scene, in which the fatservant of the distressed woman gets his foot stuckin a pickle jar. But the absurdity of the humorthrows the tragedy into sharp relief, heightening theimpact of both. One sees the influence of melodramain many of the great nineteenth century nov-ters. Amazingly, Dickens avoids flat characters ––a dangerous pratfall of archetypes. Of course,Dickens granted his characters the gift of speech,and so, unlike the chimerical pantomime lovers,Oliver Twist, Nancy Sikes and the other dramatispersonae hover between realism and fantasy.Fagin exemplifies the pantomime traits ofDickens’s characters. An archetype of the seedyunderbelly of Victorian England, Fagin also representsanother stereotype –– the greedy, amoralJew. Dickens was hardly the first to take advantageof this stereotype for his villains. He descendedfrom a long line of Englishmen –– includingMarlowe and Shakespeare –– who drew upon culturalstereotypes to create monstrous Jews wholeered at innocent children. In 1863, a womannamed Eliza Davies, the wife of a Jewish banker,read Oliver Twist, and liked it very much, exceptfor Fagin. She wrote a letter objecting to the characterization.Dickens’s reply suggests he neverconsidered that Fagin might be taken as a representationfor a whole group of people and gotdefensive:“I must take leave to say that if there be anygeneral feeling on the part of the intelligent Jewishpeople that I have done to them what you describeas a great wrong, they are a far less sensible, a farless just and a far less good tempered people thanI have always supposed them to be.”Later in the letter, he invites Mrs. Davies to seewhat he has made of her criticism in his next novel,Our Mutual Friend. Perhaps as way of apology,Dickens endowed the Jew in this novel, Riah, withan almost superhuman goodness, the exact oppositeof Fagin. Though most of his characters werearchetypes, Dickens did not want people to mistakehis characters for generalizations of ethnicity. Hischaracters are archetypes, not stereotypes.In the nineteenth century, the novel soared tonew heights while the theatre foundered. Thestage could not ignore the emergence of the novel,nor should it, given such a valuable source of newmaterial. The novel influenced the theatre at a timewhen the theatre needed it, and Dickens’s keenunderstanding of dramatic form allowed him tomake a major contribution. Edmund Wilson heraldedDickens as “the greatest dramatic writer theEnglish had since Shakespeare.” At a time whendramatic writers in London had hit a dry spell,Dickens breathed new life into a dying genre.Adapting novels for the stage was inevitablebut fraught with difficulties, both artistic and comelistsfrom Balzac to Dostoyevsky.No one recognized melodrama’s merits morethan Dickens. Although the novels he wrote immediatelybefore and after it have actors as importantcharacters, Oliver Twist remains remarkablydevoid of references to the theatre. He only writesof it in one passage of Oliver Twist:“It is the custom on the stage, in all good murderousmelodramas, to present the tragic andthe comic scenes, in as regular alternation, asthe layers of red and white in a side of streakybacon. Such changes appear absurd; butthey are not so unnatural as they would seemat first sight. The transitions in real life fromwell-spread boards to death beds, and frommourning weeds to holiday garments, are nota whit less startling; only, there, we are busyactors, instead of passive lookers-on, whichmakes a vast difference.”However, the stage infuses every part of thenovel’s form. Dickens knew that melodrama followedthe quick jumps in tone that occur in life.This was a priceless recognition for a novelist adeptat both pathos and wit. Like the melodramas,Dickens always captured accurately the ebullienceand exhaustion of living.Dickens also learned valuable lessons fromanother popular theatre of his day, the pantomime.The English pantomime inherited its theatricaltradition from the harlequinade of the Italiancommedia dell’arte. Most pantomimes silentlyacted the same familiar story of two lovers, a fatfather, an undesirable suitor, a clever servant, andplenty of clownish henchmen. The father and suitormake so much trouble for the lovers that itseems impossible for them to marry, until a goodfairy enters and wins the day for love. These stockcharacters act predictably from scene to scene andplay to play. Physical traits, and repeated tics, notpsychological motives dictate actions. The externalmust convey all information; pantomime does notallow characters words.Dickens enjoyed the pantomime, writing: “Apantomime is to us, a mirror of life.” Dickensbelieved in the line “All the world’s a stage,”Shakespeare really meant: all the world’s a pantomime.Dickens learned much from pantomimecharacters. Several pantomime charactersbecame stock characters for Dickens –– theingenue, the meddling father, the unwanted suitor.Even those characters that do not come directlyfrom pantomime behave like pantomime charac-

mercial. Dickens might have overreacted toAlmar’s burletta, but it was the only action he couldtake. He had no legal recourse to protect his work.As his career evolved, so did the idea of the professionalwriter. When he wrote Oliver Twist, therights of the novelist to own his work were shaky.Adaptations at this time spurred an examination ofintellectual property and copyright. A bad adaptationcould end the career of a fledgling writer, effectivelycurtailing his changes of risingin society. In a culture in whicheveryone attended the theatre, agood adaptation launched a writersuccessfully towards respectability.Dickens feared bad adaptationsfor more reasons than hissocial status. In a letter about anadaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, helists his concerns:“My general objection to theadaptation of any unfinishedwork of mine simply is, thatbeing badly done and worse acted it tends tovulgarize the characters, to destroy or weakenin the minds of those who see them theimpressions I have endeavored to create, andconsequently lessen the after-interest in theirprogress.”Artistically Dickens worried that audiences,content with the ending offered by the adaptor,would not read the ending he wrote. BecauseDickens often ended his novels after seeing severaladaptations, he might well have altered his endingsbased on what he saw, complicating hisprocess enormously. Furthermore, he grew concernedthat adaptors would cheapen his novels,sacrificing artistic merit for the crass success of staractor-managers.Despite his reservations about losing control ofhis work, Dickens’s enthusiasm for the theatrenever diminished. This ardor embraced goodadaptations of his novels. In the same letter, hewrites that “no objection can exist for a momentwhere the [adaptation] is so admirably done inevery respect.” At one point, he even suggestedthat he might undertake the task himself. This ideanever panned out, but Dickens relished the audience’spublic reaction to his text. He claimed thathis novels had more power read aloud, though heliked his own readings best.Dickens’enthusiasmfor thetheatre neverdiminished.Actors found the roles in Oliver Twist irresistible.Actresses playing young, orphaned boyscould pack a theatre faster than anything else inVictorian London. Many actresses made a careerof it because the impoverished boy outlasted anactresses’s looks. Likewise, the role of Bill Sikesenticed countless actors, hoping to find fame asgreat villains including Sir Henry Irving.Though only Dickens’s second novel, OliverTwist remained the most frequentlydramatized throughouthis life, despite the fact that noless of an authority than WilliamCharles Macready –– CoventGarden’s leading man –– feltthe material unsuitable fordramatization. Macready citedthe breadth of scope in thenovel as an insurmountableobstacle. The Victorians clearlydisagreed. By 1870 at least100 different Olivers had metnine dozen Artful Dodgers.Most adaptations took the form of a burlettaincluding the requisite number of songs –– a traditionof staging the novel that led directly to LionelBart’s Oliver! However, the burletta was not theonly theatrical genre to use the story of the orphanboy. Oliver and his comrades were popular charactersin the toy theatre –– in which the characterswere made from mass produced sheets of paperand sold with paper proscenium, sets, and props.In the early twentieth century, burlesques weremade satirizing both the material and the productionhistory including “Oliver Twist; or Dickens up aTree” and “Oliver Twisted.”Throughout its long production history, OliverTwist endured many shifts in theatrical taste.Initially, productions slavishly recreated tableaubased upon original illustrations from the novel,commissioning sets from men who staked theirreputations on exact replicas. These all but disappeareduntil the rise of film. The role of Oliverpassed from the hands of women to young menand boys. Oliver Twist weathered method acting,radio, film, and the musical, all of which took to thematerial as fast as the Victorians.If in 1838, Dickens had been granted the foresightto see what would happen to his novel, heOLIVER TWISTat a glanceFebruary 17 – March 24 • Loeb Stageby Charles Dickensmight have refused to get up from the floor of thebox. However, being but mortal, Dickens did rise,and wrote some of the most beloved novels inEnglish. Dickens owes not a little of his success totheatre. Without the example of the stage and withoutits help in spreading his popularity, he wouldnever have stood so high.Sarah Ollove is a first-year dramaturgystudent at the A.R.T./MXAT Institute.adapted and directed by Neil Bartlettset and costume design Rae Smithlighting design Scott Zielinskimusic Gerard McBurneymusic adaptor and director Simon Deaconmovement director Struan Lesliesound design David RemediosCASTJohn Dawkins, the Artful Dodger Carson Elrod*Oliver Twist Michael Wartella*Mr. Bumble Remo Airaldi*Mrs. Bumble Karen MacDonaldMr. Sowerberry/Mr. Grimwig/Mr. Fang Thomas Derrah*Bill Sykes/Mrs. Sowerberry Greg Derelian*Nancy Jennifer Ikeda*Fagin Ned Eisenberg*Noah Claypole/Tom Chitling Steven Boyer*Charley Bates Craig Pattison*Toby Crackit Lucas Steele*Mr. Brownlow Will LeBow*Rose Brownlow/Charlotte Sowerberry Elizabeth Jasicki*Major Production SponsorsPhilip and Hilary Burling Hod and Cassandra IrvineSYNOPSISOIiver Twist is a young orphan who never knew his father. After his mother dies, he is raised in a harshjuvenile home, then at a workhouse,where he runs foul of the authorities by asking for more food. As punishmentOliver is apprenticed to an undertaker, but he escapes and makes his way to London, where hemeets the Artful Dodger, a young pickpocket. Dodger introduces Oliver to a band of criminals led by Faginand the murderous Bill Sikes, who train him in the art of picking pockets. Oliver’s new life of crime leads himthrough a series of extraordinary adventures, culminating in a terrifying chase across the rooftops of London— and a chance encounter with a man who holds the secret of the boy’s true identity.previous page, top left: a scene fromthe London production of Oliver Twist,adapted and directed by Neil Bartlett.middle left: Oliver’s reception by Fagin andthe boys, illustration by George Cruikshank.bottom: “Young Philip joins a School of CrossingSweepers” –– a scene from Dickens’ London.Bartlett’s Creations Katie Rasor interviews director Neill BartlettIn anticipation of the American premiere of CharlesDickens’ Oliver Twist, ARTicles interviewed NeilBartlett, the creator and director of the piece. Mr.Bartlett has had a long, distinguished career asactor, director, adaptor and novelist. This will be hissecond production at the American RepertoryTheatre.Katie Rasor: What appeals to you about OliverTwist?Neil Bartlett: I defy anyone to show me a boringpage written by Charles Dickens. His works getinside your head, and you never forget them. Twothings make him absolute gold onstage: First, thestory. Second the way he handles words. He writessome of the most inventive, astonishing, strange,alive sentences in English. At times they’re simple.What is it about, “Please, Sir, I want some more.”that makes it one of the most famous lines inEnglish literature?So Oliver Twist is a story I’ve been promisingmyself I would stage for a long time.KR: What challenges did you face adaptingthis piece?NB: You have to honor the original, but youalso have to reinvent it. Oliver Twist is a story lotsof people love. You’ve got two jobs: You’ve got tosatisfy people so they feel we have done justice tothe original, but you’ve also got to make it your own.And you’ve got to push people’s expectations. Itmustn’t be comfortable. You shouldn’t be watchingand thinking “Ah, this is lovely.” It shouldn’t be reassuringand familiar. Dickens’ work is frightening andexciting. I hope to bring this side to life.KR: Could you tell us about the set design?NB: Oliver Twist is a thriller that moves at anincredible pace. So the design has to move quick-ly. Dickens goes from one place to another by justturning the page. We needed to go with a designthat would never stop providing all the differentlocations: the orphanage, London Bridge at midnight,the den where Fagin lives. Rae Smith hasconstructed something that is half way between aset and a machine. It’s a giant box of tricks.KR: How did you and Rae Smith come upwith the concept?NB: It was inspired by a visit to MadameTussaud’s wax museum. They have a collection ofwhat used to be called “Penny Dreadful Machines.”They are little, mechanical glass-fronted boxes,and inside the box there is a room in a castle orhouse. You drop a penny in the slot, which activatesa clockwork mechanism, and little figures popup and act out a story. Rae has taken one of thosechildren’s toys and blown it up into a giant box forthe theater. The storytelling has as much to do withthe design as the words.KR: I understand that Victorian Music hallsinfluenced you. How?NB: One of Dickens’ characteristic tricks ismoving along at a clip and then suddenly pullingback and delivering some great moralizing paragraph.He was famous as an orator about socialinjustice, and one of the problems with turning anovel into a play is that you keep the dialogue butlose Dickens talking to his readers. So we’ve takenthose passages of prose and set them to tunesfrom the Music Hall of the period. Choruses singthe Dickens and punctuate the action. The songshare Dickens’ comments on what he felt about theevents of the story. It’s not a musical, but it hassung choruses. It’s very different from the LionelBart musical.KR: What are other ways that you tried to preservethe essence of the novel?NB: All the words in the production are byDickens. The show is called Charles Dickens’Oliver Twist. It really is his. The original languageis so fantastic, why would you use anything else?KR: What made you choose the Artful Dodgeras a narrator?NB: Since he’s such a cheeky little sod, hecan get very close to the audience.KR: Does the novel have any contemporaryresonance?NB: Why is a novel written 160 years ago stillin print? Because the question in the middle of thestory is: Have we made a world in which childrenare safe? And everyone knows the answer to thatquestion. The story is still true.Katie Rasor is a first-year dramaturgystudent at the A.R.T./MXAT Institutefor Advanced TheatreTrainingARTicles7

Merry Music inBritannia “ruled the waves”. Industry flourished.Attracting hordes of people lookingfor jobs in the factories or on the docks,London’s population exploded. Hard-laboring menand women crowded the city’s narrow, filthy streets–– the expanding working class of VictorianEngland. For this new proletariat, these were thehey days of opportunity and despair.The music hall answered the masses’ needfor amusement after a day of toil, and marks theemergence of a theatre originating in working classculture. This popular theatre sprang out of theLondon taverns where men met to eat, drink anddo business. Cheered up by pints of beer and popularballads, the guests would leave their sorrowsoutside and join in on the choruses.In 1852, Mr. Charles Morton opened the firstof the great music halls. Canterbury Hall accommodated700 guests; a platform erected at one endof the hall introduced a packed night of musicalacts. Audiences sat at tables, eating and drinkingDickens’ London bythroughout the performance.Presiding at one side of the platform,the Chairman introduced a variety ofmusical numbers: cheerful tunes, “niggerminstrels,” and selections frompopular operas. An immediate hit,Morton soon renovated the venue intoan ornate hall seating 1,500 spectators.Inspired by this success,numerous music halls sprouted allover the city. By 1875, 375 music hallsdotted Greater London. Although atfirst wild audiences and carousingdominated the performances, with thebuilding of large “variety” theatres ––the Alhambra, the Empire, the Tivoli ––a wider audience started to attend,including members of le beau monde.As the music hall’s popularitythrived, entertainment prevailed overdrinking. Singing was the heart of themusic hall, but other kinds of performancesadded variety: sword swallowersand slapstick sketches, aerialistsand adagio dancers, magicians andmale impersonators.The demand for performerscreated a star system –– the most successfulartists performed in numeroushalls each night, crossing London incarriages. Since they came from the working class,their songs and comedy acts reflected the socialconditions and everyday life of the urban poor. Thelyrics ridiculed lodgers and mothers-in-law, drinkdebts and overdue rent, bailiffs and hen-peckedhusbands. One or two “hits” could make a name,and before the phonograph and radio, the audiencewould return to the music halls again andagain to hear their favorite tunes. Soon thesesongs were whistled by the tailor, hummed by thebutcher and chanted by the whore –– building amerry soundtrack to the bustle of London.Given the importance of music hall inVictorian England, Neil Bartlett has woven it into hisproduction of Oliver Twist. In collaboration withcomposer Gerard McBurney and music directorSimon Deacon, Bartlett will integrate live musiciansonstage and intersperse the narrative with choralpassages. The criminal hordes in the streets playfolk instruments: the violin, the serpent and thehurdy-gurdy. Although rarelyseen today, the latter two werepopular at the time of Dickens.The hurdy-gurdy, a“mechanical violin,” is arrangedwith several strings to be playedsimultaneously by a rotating,rosin-covered wheel, thuscreating a continuous, grindingtonality reminiscent of a bagpipe.The serpent, an ancientwind instrument related to thetuba, derives its name from itscurving shape –– the seven-footlong, sinuous conical tuberesembles a giant, coilingsnake. Played softly it has afirm, mellow timbre, at mediumvolume it produces a robustsound that becomes unpleasantnoise when played loudly. Thusthe instrument achieved a twofoldreputation. ComposerCharles Burney described it as“not only overblown andNjal Mjoesdetestably out of tune, but exactly resembling intone that of a great hungry, or rather angry Essexcalf.” In Oliver Twist these instruments will bringthe sounds of Dickens’s England back to life.Alleviating the backbreaking toil of workingclass life, music filled VictorianLondon. Out of the brightly lit musichalls, merry tunes reverberated in thedark city, piercing the fog, piercing thehearts of its people.Njal Mjoes is a first-year dramaturgystudent at the A.R.T./MXAT Institutefor Advanced Theatre Training.far left: program from theEmpire Palace Music Hall, (c. 1897).near left: The Canterbury, London’sfirst purpose-built music hall.below: “My Last Pantomime ––When I Took my Grandchildrento Covent Garden”, by F. Bernard.background and bottom:Covent Garden music hallbottom right insets:right: a serpent, left: a hurdy-gurdy8ARTicles

SEE THE STARS OF TOMORROW . . . TODAY!A P o s t - M o d e r n - P o p C a b a r e tAPartyPoMoPopEveningofART is first and foremost acelebration . . . and it’s a fundraiser for the Institute class of2007 as we prepare to showcase our talents in New Yorkand Los Angeles. Performances by graduating studentsprovide the excuse for refreshments, auctions, games, andprizes as we celebrate our time in Cambridge and thank allthose who have made our experience here so fabulous!It’s an evening of post-modern pop at its finest ––song and dance, adaptations, the story of Elektra as told bythe Jacksons, death-defying acrobatics, and so muchmore! The holidays aren't over 'till we say so –– so comecelebrate with us!February 12, 7:30pmZero Arrow Theatre$25, $15 students.ENJOY FINE CUISINE WITH OUR RESTAURANT PARTNERS.Call for reservations & present your ticket stub. Offers can change, so please call to verify current offer. Up-to-date info at www.amrep.org“ONE OF THE TOP TEN NEW BISTROTSIN THE USA!”— FOOD & WINE MAGAZINETicket (section A seating) to the A.R.T. and pre-theatredinner — $80. Call Craigie Street Bistro to make reservationsand arrange for tickets. (limited availability)If you already have tickets, take advantage of the $35prix-fixe Curtain for Certain menu!!5 Craigie Circle617.497.5511www.craigiestreetbistrot.comCONTEMPORARYAMERICAN FARE WITHINTERNATIONAL ACCENTS“RELAXEDFINE DINING,CAMBRIDGESTYLE”– Boston PhoenixPre-Theatre ‘Plate Fare’ – $30, three-course(appetizer, dinner, and dessert) prix fixe menuwith ticket to show ($38 with glass of wine).Post-Theatre ‘Diner’s Studio’ – “Ten After Ten”menu; Free glass of wine with purchase of appetizer.56 JFK Street617.868.0335www.conundrumrestaurant.comCONTEMPORARY,COMFORTABLEIRISH PUBATMOSPHEREValet parking for just $12.Free with purchase of $50 or more!Valet service is available beginning at 5pm,Wed thru Sat. Good for dinner and/orperformance. Dinner til 11, bar til 1am.1230 Massachusetts Ave.617.497.0400www.graftonstreetcambridge.comWE CREATESENSATIONALDESSERTEXPERIENCES ©Receive a complimentaryPrelude (lightdinner appetizer) itembetween 6:00 and 10:00 p.m. daily, when you purchaseany plated dessert in the dining room. Items includeWarm Spinach Salad, Fancy Mesclun Salad, CaesarSalad, White Pizza, Farmers Pizza, MediterraneanPizza, Hummus Plate, and Bruschetta(menu items may vary).30 Dunster Street617.441.9797www.finaledesserts.comLEGAL SEA FOODSTheatre & Lunchthree course pre-fixefor customers with valid tickets for that day’sKendall performance Square at the American location Repertory Theatre only!with tickets to that day’s performancelunch $20 • dinner $30“ONE OF THE TOPTEN NEWRESTAURANTSIN THE WORLD!”— FOOD & WINEMAGAZINEPre-theater dinner (or post-matinee dinner) in eitherthe Monday Club at $35 with a glass of house red orwhite wine, or dinner in the Soiree Room (openTuesday through Saturday) for $45, with a choice of aglass of bubbly, or house red or white wine.Priority reservations for ticket holders.91 Winthrop Street617.864.1933www.upstairsonthesquare.com$20.00 per person *includes coffee and soft drink1st Course ~ one of the followingMixed Green Saladtomato balsamic vinaigretteNew England Clam Chowder2nd Course ~ one of the followingBoston Baked Scrodtopped with seasoned crumbs and diced tomatoesTortilla, Apple and Goat Cheese Saladwith grilled shrimp or scallopschopped avocado and chipotle orange dressingTuna Burgerfrench fries and cole slawShrimp and Garlictomato, scallions andmushrooms tossed with linguini3rd Course ~ one of the followingBon Bon TrioProfiteroletwo cream puffsfilled with ice cream*tax and gratuity not includedwww.LEGALSEAFOODS.com5 Cambridge CenterKendall Square617-864-3400CONTEMPORARYCUISINE INSPIREDBY AMERICANCLASSICSPresent your ticket and receive 15% off your meal.This offer is only available on the day of your attendance.Discount cannot be offered on alcohol.Limit one discount per party.Advance reservations requested.44 Brattle Street (on the walkway)617.868.2255www.harvestcambridge.comCAMBRIDGE’SMOST BELOVEDFRENCHDINING ROOM20% off lunch or dinner for A.R.T.ticketholders on day of performance.Sorry, offer excludes alcohol and the prix fixe menu.8 Holyoke Street617.497.5300www.sandrines.comARTicles9

O P E N I N G N I G H T O F W I N G S O F D E S I R EOpening night of Wings of Desire brought artists and supporters together at the Loeb Drama Center for pre-performance andpost-performance receptions. Audience members, dignitaries, actors and artists celebrated the collaborative workof the American Repertory Theatre and Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Photos by Karen Snyder.Wings of Desire cast members Mam Smith and Robin Young.A.R.T. Advisory Board Member Dean Michael Shinagelwith Professor Stanley Hoffmann.The artistic team (L to R:) Ko van den Bosch; A.R.T. Artistic Director, RobertWoodruff; Director Ola Mafaalani, A.R.T. Associate Artistic Director Gideon Lester;and Ivo van Hove, General Director of Toneelgroep Amsterdam.(L to R): Jeanne Wikler, Director General for Cultural Affairs USA (ConsulateGeneral of the Netherlands); Cees de Bever, Director for Performing Arts(Consulate General of the Netherlands); and Harvard Loeb Fellow, Tracy Metz.(L to R): Major Production Sponsor Ted Wendell; A.R.T. Artistic DirectorRobert Woodruff; Production Sponsors Martha Cox and Andrew McKay.(L to R): A.R.T. Advisory Board Member Barbara Lemperly Grantwith guests Lynne Kortenhaus, Rosalie Giordano, and Rajiv Bhatt.10ARTicles

Learning Opportunities at theAmerican Repertory TheatreBy: Ari BarbanellI spent five years before grad school in the art world ofNew York City, starting my own theatre company, interningwith the renowned Wooster Group, and working amongstgreat artists such as lighting designer Jennifer Tipton anddirector Richard Schechner. All of this preceded my currentstudy in Boston University’s Arts Administration mastersprogram, where there is a requirement to hold aninternship for one semester –– 150 hours of work –– in anarts organization of my choice. At first I chose to waive myinternship requirement, seeing it as something unnecessaryto my growth in the field of theatre administration.However, an assignment for a class on management inperforming arts organizations led me to the office of A.R.T.’s Development DirectorSharyn Bahn. And everything changed.The A.R.T is a theatre I admired, even before my arrival in Cambridge, as an exampleof innovative and powerful theatre, making work that challenges the audience visually,emotionally and even aurally (hello Dresden Dolls!). I always held respect andadmiration for this theatre. When I met Sharyn, and began to hear of the inner workingsof the development team, I wanted more than just the pleasure of sitting in theaudience. I hemmed and hawed and sent thank you notes, and finally I called to ask,“How can I help? How can I be an active part of this organization?” Sharyn made meaware of the A.R.T’s active interning program. Each department accepts interns, on aseasonal or yearly basis. Interns must apply, and are chosen to be a part of the A.R.Tin a significant capacity. I could not have sent my resume sooner, and here, six monthslater, I continue to intern for the development department. I joke to the developmentteam that I will head back to the offices of the arts administration program at BostonUniversity with a proposal to teach my own class, entitled, “How Development ReallyWorks.” I am given respect and responsibility. I am able to attend staff meetings, aidin writing proposals, and work with the pARTy committee. When I stamp and sealenvelopes, the entire department is stamping and sealing envelopes together. I learn,first-hand how much hard work, passion, devotion, time, and energy goes to the developmentprocess in theatre. The other interns at the A.R.T will most definitely agree thatthe departments that they work in offer the same outlets for passion and devotion, thesame lessons on how much work it takes to make a theatre function. We all pass eachother in the hallway, smile and nod, and feel grateful to be a part of the A.R.T.Ari Barbanell is an intern in the A.R.T.’s development office this season.The next Breakfast at the A.R.T.OLIVER TWISTFebruary 28, Loeb StageBREAKFASTAT THE A.R.T.Last season, the A.R.T. began a new tradition, inviting audiences toattend a weekday morning performance preceded by a continentalbreakfast and an opportunity to speak with members of the creativestaff. The event committee — Sara Cabot, Barbara Desai, RachaelGoldfarb, Lenore Gustafson, and Yuriko Young — see Breakfast at theA.R.T. as an opportunity to welcome new and existing audiences to thetheatre in a fresh new way. To date, Breakfast at the A.R.T. eventshave welcomed hundreds of people for performances of Romeo &Juliet and bobrauschenbergamerica.On Wednesday, February 28, you’re invited to the next Breakfastat the A.R.T. in conjunction with our American premiere of OliverTwist. Join us for coffee, pastries, and conversation beginning at 9:00a.m. in the West Lobby. At 9:30 a.m. A.R.T. Associate Artistic DirectorGideon Lester will make some brief remarks about the production, thenthe audience will be ushered into the theatre for a 10:00 a.m. performance.For those who wish to remain following the performance, membersof the cast will participate in a short discussion.Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door, and seating is generaladmission. To purchase tickets, visit www.amrep.org/breakfast or callthe box office at (617) 547-8300. The breakfast is provided by Hi-RiseBread Company.Upcomingstudent matinees10amBRITANNICUSFebruary 7OLIVER TWISTMARCH 14, 16, 21, 23617.496.2000x8844ARTicles11

ORDER TODAY!INDIVIDUAL TICKETS TO ALL SHOWS ON SALE NOW617.547.8300 www.amrep.orgsubscribe & save!• Free and easy ticket exchange!• See three plays for only $75!details in the box to the right• All subscriptions are discounted• Discounts on parking and fine diningin Harvard Squarenew to the A.R.T.?SUBSCRIBE NOW WITH NO RISKWe’re so sure you’ll enjoy the 2006-07season, here’s a money-back guarantee:After you’ve seen your first two productions, if you’re notcompletely satisfied, just give us a call and we’ll refund theremainder of your season tickets. (New subscribers only.)A.R.T. student pass$60 gets you 5 tickets good for any combinationof plays. That’s only $12 a seat!(Full-time college students only.)student matineesspecial 10am performancesStudent tickets are only $18, plus a free chaperoneticket is provided for every 15 tickets you purchase.Call 617.496.2000 x8844Britannicus February 7Oliver Twist March 14, 16, 21, 23breakfast at the A.R.T.pre-performance discussion, light refreshments,and a performance, beginning at 9:00am.See page 11 for details.Oliver Twist February 28curtain timesTue/Wed/Thu/Sun evenings — 7:30pmFriday/Saturday evenings — 8:00pmSaturday/Sunday matinees — 2:00pmticket pricesLOEB STAGE A BFri/Sat evenings $76 $53All other perfs $66 $38box office hoursLOEB STAGETuesday — SundayMondayPerformance daysnoon — 5pmclosedopen until curtainpreplay discussionsPreshow discussions one hour before 7:30 curtainled by the Literary Department. Loeb Stage only.Britannicus preplaysSunday, February 4, Wednesday, February 7,Thursday, February 8Oliver TwistWednesday, March 7, Thursday, March 8,Sunday, March 11playbackPost-show discussions after all Saturday matinees.All ticket holders welcome.new! exchanges forsingle ticket buyersNow single ticket buyers can exchange for atransaction fee of $10. As always, A.R.T.subscribers can exchange for free!discount parkingLOEB STAGEHave your ticket stub stamped at the receptiondesk when you attend a performace and receivediscounts at the University Place Garage or TheCharles Hotel Garage.ZERO ARROW THEATREDiscount parking is available at the HarvardUniversity lot at 1033 Mass. Ave. (entrance onEllery Street.) There is also valet parking availabe atthe nearby Grafton Street Pub & Grill. See page 9. Goto www.amrep.org/venues/zarrow/for more information.Join the A.R.T.'s email list and be among the first to receive news, reviews,multimedia content, ARTicles, posts to the ARTblog, and other inside information.Get your free membership at www.amrep.org/connectionsThe A.R.T. will never sell, rent, or share your email address.SPECIAL – 3 FOR $75Britannicus • Oliver Twist,No Man’s LandGood for Section B seatsany time except Fri/Sat eves.ORDER AT617.547.8300 or amrep.orgjanuarybritan21 22 23 24 25 26 27britanbritan P2pmbritan britan britan britan britan28 29 30 31britanbritanbritan britanfebruary1 2 3britan Pbritan britan britan4 5 6 7 8 9 10britanbritan SMbritan PPbritanbritan Pbritan Pbritan britan britan11 12 13 14 15 16 17britan2pmoliveroliver2pmoliveroliver18 19 20 21 22 23 24oliveroliver25 26 27 28marcholiveroliver Boliveroliver Poliver oliver oliver1 2 3oliver Poliver oliver oliver4 5 6 7 8 9 10oliveroliver P2pmoliver Poliver Poliver oliver oliver11 12 13 14 15 16 17oliveroliver SMoliver SM oliver PPoliveroliver oliver oliver oliver oliver18 19 20 21 22 23 24oliver2pm50 at $1550 seats for every performance on sale for only $15!50 seats for each performance that will go on sale at noonon the day of each s how (while seats remain).Purchase 2 easy ways:• by phone –– 617.547.8300• in person –– 64 Brattle Street, Harvard SquareFor info on availability, go to amrep.orgFirst come, first served!oliveroliver SMoliveroliver SMoliveroliveroliver P2pm20britan Britannicus Loeb Stageoliver Oliver Twist Loeb Stageshow P post-show discussionP show pre-show discussion, one hour before curtainshow SM student matinee, 10amcall 617-496-2000 x8844 to book a student goupshow B Breakfast at the A.R.T., 9:30amcoffee, pastries & conversation, followed by performanceCurtain Times: (unless otherwise indicated)Tue/Wed/Thu 7:30pmFri 8pmSat 2&8pmSun 2&7:30pm