The Theater Company at Hubbard Hall will present Tennessee Williams’ The Night of the Iguana, a play made famous by the Richard Burton-Ava Gardner film, in the Opera House theater through March 25.
A disgraced clergyman, Lawrence T. Shannon, barred from his church for “heresy and fornication,” conducts a busload of women tourists to a dilapidated resort hotel in Mexico. He is on the verge of a nervous breakdown and is seeking refuge with his old friends, Fred and Maxine Faulk, who own the place. But Fred is dead; only the bawdy Maxine can help him, if anyone can. Needless to say, the tour has gone badly. Shannon has become entangled with an underaged member of the party. Her protector is the implacable Miss Fellowes, a person who will succeed in utterly blackballing our hero.
Enter a strange pair of penniless travelers from Nantuckett, Hannah Jelkes and her ancient grandfather Nonno. Hannah is terrified of actual intimate contact but fearless in matters of the sexual soul. This creates an unfortunate tension between her and Maxine not to mention further confusion for Shannon. Nonno, the world’s oldest living poet, is finishing his masterpiece, if he can remember it before he dies.
The play takes place in September of 1940, during the London Blitz. An enthusiastic pair of German tourists keeps us apprised of the wonderful news.
This TCHH production is directed by John Hadden, Artistic Director of the company, and several TCHH favorites are onstage. The cast includes Doug Ryan as Shannon, Christine Decker as Maxine, Stephanie Moffat-Hynds as Hannah, Richard Howe as Nonno and Kim Johnson Turner as Fellowes.
Performances of The Night of the Iguana are March 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24 at 8 pm and March 4, 11, 18 and 25 at 2 pm. Sunday matinees will be followed by audience ‘talk-backs’ with the actors and the director. Tickets cost $18 for season subscribers, $20 for Hubbard Hall members, $24 for non-members and $15 for students. Tickets may be reserved and purchased online at www.hubbardhall.org or by calling 518-677-2495.
Hubbard Hall is an historic opera house located at 25 East Main Street in Cambridge, NY.