by Thomas Wolfe
Goodwood Theatre 166a Goodwood Road, Goodwood
November 16, 17, 22, 23, 24 @ 7.30, Matinees Sunday 18 @ 4.00; Saturday 24 @ 2.00, Early Tuesday 20, Wednesday 21 @ 6.30
by arrangement with ORiGiN Theatrical on behalf of Samuel French Inc.
North Carolina. 1916. But it could be anywhere. Any time.
Teenager Eugene Gant lives in a country town with his large, crazy family, and survives by reading great books. His home is the "Dixieland" boarding house, run by his domineering mother, Eliza, who is forever buying real estate and caring for her bizarre assortment of boarders rather than her family. She constantly battles with Eugene's boozy, poetry-spouting father, W. O. Gant – a monumental mason, whose prize possession is a marble angel that represents the characters' aspirations. Of all his siblings, Eugene most idolises his older brother, Ben, who knows the danger of entrapment by the family, and urges young Eugene to get away.
Caught in the stifling cross-fire between his romantic father and pragmatic mother, Eugene dreams of escaping to become a writer. But nothing complicates a dream like the arrival of your first great love.
Will he ever get away? Will he recover? Can he learn to understand and forgive?
AN AMERICAN CLASSIC
Independent Theatre has a proud reputation for adapting great works of American fiction to the stage, among them The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, East of Eden, Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird.
One of the world's great coming-of-age stories, Thomas Wolfe's sprawling family saga is based on his own complex family life, and alive with vivid characters, poetic language and rich, quirky comedy.
Ketti Frings' brilliant adaptation for the acclaimed 1957 Broadway production, won her the PULITZER PRIZE for Drama. Family, adolescence, first love, heartbreak, escape – this timeless story speaks to us all.
Cast: Will Cox, Bronwyn Ruciak, David Roach, Jonathan Johnston, Trish Hendrick, Naomi Voortman, David Rapkin, Malcolm Walton, Pam O'Grady, Madeleine Herd, Louis Henbest, Thomas Chew, Allen Munn and Ashleigh Merriel
DIRECTED BY
ROB CROSER
ADAPTED BY
KETTI FRINGS