Stephen Pelinski as Hector Hushabey, Lee E. Ernst as Capt. Shotover, and Elizabeth Heflin as Hesione Hushabey.

Nov. 11-Dec. 6: REP stages 'Heartbreak House'

Resident Ensemble Players presents George Bernard Shaw's 'Heartbreak House'

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2:46 p.m., Nov. 9, 2015--Tony Award-nominated British director Maria Aitken and the University of Delaware Resident Ensemble Players (REP) will present George Bernard Shaw’s Heartbreak House, with performances scheduled Nov. 11 through Dec. 6.

Like Downton Abbey, Shaw’s Heartbreak House is an English country manor full of colorful characters, beautiful clothes and looming perils, both personal and historical.

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With biting humor and bittersweet absurdity, Shaw casts a piercing gaze on the sensibilities of an affluent and ineffectual British society on the brink of World War I.

The ship-shaped home of Captain Shotover, a retired sea captain, is full of rum and stockpiled dynamite and is the gathering place for an eccentric collection of lovers and losers.

A merry-go-round of amorous attractions between daughters, husbands, fiancées and random houseguests leads to tête-à-têtes on unrequited love, indispensable optimism, ill-fated capitalism and the hopeless but endearing lunacy of the human race.

“I am thrilled that the REP is presenting this remarkable, rarely produced masterpiece. Shaw is a playwright who combines sheer entertainment with such a profound philosophical and spiritual perspective,” writes Sanford Robbins, producing artistic director. “His style is a combination of lightness, depth, irreverence, and, most surprisingly of all, a very special and unsentimental mysticism that defies easy categorization.”

Schedule

Heartbreak House opens on Friday, Nov. 13, and runs through Sunday Dec. 6, in the University’s Roselle Center for the Arts. Preview performances of the play are on Wednesday and Thursday, Nov. 11 and 12, at 7:30 p.m. The full schedule of performances be found at the REP website.

Prologues — free preshow presentations — take place on Saturday, Nov. 21, and Sunday, Dec. 6, beginning at 1:15 p.m. in the Thompson Theatre. Barbara Hughes, director of costume production for the REP, will present “From Conception to Collaboration to Opening Night,” a fascinating look at the development, design, and construction process of the beautiful costumes of Heartbreak House.

The REP will also offer audience members a chance to engage with the cast members at a talkback in the theatre following the performance on Thursday, Nov. 19.

Tickets

Tickets are $23-$29, with discounts for students and seniors.

Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 302-831-2204, or in person at the Roselle Center for the Arts, 110 Orchard Rd., Newark, Monday through Friday from noon until 5 p.m.

About the director

Maria Aitkin directed the very popular, award-winning production of The 39 Steps on Broadway (Tony Award-winner and best director nomination), in London’s West End (nine year run; Olivier and Helpmann Award winner) and the current off-Broadway production at the Union Square Theatre.

She has also directed Japes (Bay Street Theatre); The Cocktail Hour (Guthrie Theater, Massachusetts; Huntington Theatre, Boston); Private Lives (Shakespeare Theatre DC); The Seagull (Huntington Theatre, Boston); Sherlock’s Last Case (Watermill, Newbury); The Gift (Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles); Betrayal (Huntington Theatre, Boston); Private Lives (Huntington Theatre, Boston); Man and Boy (Broadway); The Gift (Melbourne Theatre); Educating Rita  (Huntington Theatre, Boston); As You Like It (Shakespeare Theatre DC); Quartermaine’s Terms (Williamstown Festival); Man and Boy (West End and tour); As You Like It (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); Irma Vep (West End); After the Ball Was Over (Old Vic); Happy Family (West End); The Rivals (Court Theatre, Chicago) 

As an actress, Aitkins has performed leading roles at the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and in the West End in such productions as Hay Fever, Blithe Spirit, Bedroom Farce, Travesties, Waste, Private Lives, and The Vortex, among others.

Aitkens has a master of arts degree, Oxford University, English language and literature, and is a trustee of the Noel Coward Foundation. She is the author of two books, A Girdle Round the Earth and Style: Acting in High Comedy.

About the REP

The Resident Ensemble Players (REP) is a professional theatre company located at the University of Delaware. The REP’s mission is to engage audiences throughout the tri-state area with frequent productions of outstanding classic, modern, and contemporary plays performed in a wide variety of styles that celebrate and demonstrate the range, breadth, and ability to transform a full-time ensemble of nationally respected stage actors who have been trained in the same way.

The REP is committed to creating future audiences for live theatre by offering its productions at low prices that enable and encourage the attendance of everyone in the region, regardless of income.

Photo by N. Howatt

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