Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON (July 3, 2014) — The Shaw Festival brings Tennessee Williams’s forgotten one-act play A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur back to the stage. Directed by Blair Williams, this rarely seen comical charmer is peppered with Williams’s sharp and witty dialogue and features Kaylee Harwood, Deborah Hay, Kate Hennig and Julain Molnar. It began previews June 28 at the Court House Theatre.
Designer Cameron Porteous, along with lighting designer Louise Guinand, creates the cramped mid-1930s west end St. Louis apartment of Dorothea and Brodey.
On a warm June Sunday morning, Dorothea (Deborah Hay) waits for the phone call that will change her life – she’s sure the principal of the high school where she teaches is about to propose. Meanwhile her roommate Bodey (Kate Hennig) prepares for their picnic at Creve Coeur Park and dreams of the eventual marriage of Dorothea and her twin brother Buddy. The St. Louis heat kicks up a notch in their small apartment when Dorothea’s pretentious friend Helena (Kaylee Harwood) makes an unexpected visit and their grieving German-speaking neighbour Sophie (Julain Molnar) drops in for coffee, a cruller and company.
Tennessee Williams wrote a version of the play in 1976 called Creve Coeur. When an off-Broadway theatre agreed to stage it, Williams expanded and revised it, and the play first premiered at the Spoleto Arts Festival in Charleston, South Carolina in June 1978, with Shirley Knight as Dorothea. Continuing to work on the play, he changed the title to A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur, and it opened at the Hudson Guild Theatre in New York on January 21, 1979 with Knight reprising her role and Peg Murray, who had won a 1967 Tony Award for Best Supporting Actress in Cabaret, as Bodey.
About A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur
June 28 – October 11; Opening: July 12
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur will be on stage at the Court House Theatre (26 Queen Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake).
A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur is sponsored by Vintage Hotels.
The Shaw Festival’s 2014 season began April 4 runs until October 26 and features 10 productions presented on the Festival’s four Niagara-on-the-Lake stages. For more information on our 2014 season, performance schedule and ticket information, please visit www.shawfest.com or call 1-800-511-SHAW.
Illustration for A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur. ©2013 Emily Cooper.
2014-07-03
Niagara-on-the-Lake: Tennessee Williams' "A Lovely Day for Creve Coeur" now in previews