The Literary Supplement

In addition to our three productions, our subscribers receive advanced booking to the second season of our acclaimed reading series, The Literary Supplement, curated by Michael Feingold, the Theatre’s Literary Advisor, and produced by Associate Artistic Director, Arin Arbus. The plays in the Literary Supplement continue to examine this season’s theme, Africa, Europe, America: Exploring the Connections.

On January 28th, we will read Tower of Evil, Michael Feingold’s adaptation of La Tour de Nesle, by Alexandre Dumas, père (1802-1870). The grandson of a French army officer and a slave on his family’s plantation in Haiti, Dumas is still celebrated today for his great romantic novels like The Three Musketeers. In his own time he was equally lauded for his sparkling stage comedies and outrageous melodramas. Tower of Evil, banned from the English-speaking stage in Dumas’ own time because of its luridness, is the most celebrated specimen of the latter.

On March 17th, we will read The Self-Tormentor by Terence. The Roman playwright Publius Terentius Afer (c.190 -159 BCE) was a North African slave taught to read and write by his “owner”, a Roman senator, and subsequently freed because of the exceptional talent displayed in his writing. Unlike his more famous predecessor Plautus, Terence displays in his work an interest in taut dramatic structures and a fascination with moral and psychological problems that lends his comedies an unusual depth, as in this story of two neighbors of opposite temperaments and their contrasting troubles with their sons.

On April 14, we will read The Swamp Dwellers by the Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian novelist, poet and playwright by Wole Soyinka (1934 – ). A taut, mordant drama that reworks the parable of the Prodigal Son's return, The Swamp Dwellers has often been seen as an allegory of the conflicting forces at work in Africa today. Celebrated here as the author of such plays as Kongi’s Harvest and Death and the King’s Horsemen, Soyinka has himself been a notable spokesman for peace in resolving Africa's conflicts, at times suffering political imprisonment or exile for his views. He is one of the formative figures in modern African literature.

The Literary Supplement series will be held at The Cherry Lane Theatre, 38 Commerce Street, New York, NY 10014. For reservations and more information please call 212 229-2819 x10.

Special Reading Event:

THE DUCHESS OF MALFI

In addition there will be an invitation-only reading of John Webster’s 1613 tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi. A poetic masterpiece, one of the key works of Jacobean drama, Webster’s gripping, terrifying play tells the story of a wealthy, aristocratic widow whose two brothers, from sinister motives, forbid her to marry again, and whose clandestine marriage, spied on and betrayed by Bosola, one of the most fascinating villains in all literature, leads to violence, madness, and the fatal unraveling of everyone’s hopes. Please check back later for the date and location of this special event.