And we’re back! We Happy Few is returning from a long hiatus after our very successful run of Romeo and Juliet last year, and We’ve got a tempting, but rarely produced, masterpiece on the boards for Capital Fringe this summer. As you may remember, when Hannah Todd and Raven Bonniwell founded We Happy Few, they created a company dedicated to producing small-cast, stripped down, ensemble versions of classic plays. Over the past 3 years, We have done exactly that, putting on small cast versions of The Tempest, Hamlet and, Romeo and Juliet. What do all of those plays have in common? They’re all written by William Shakespeare! But our mission is bigger than just Shakespeare, We are committed to perform classic plays in our special style. So we are branching out this summer by performing the rarely-produced, but razor-sharp, Duchess of Malfi by John Webster.
The original title page for the quarto of Duchess of Malfi. Are there awesome gems of knowledge hidden in this image? You bet your sweet bippy there are. And you can find out what they are in the next blog post! (Photo courtesy of the University of Oxford)Haven’t heard of the Duchess? Don’t worry. If you like the intrigue of Shakespeare’s Histories or the madness and murder of his Tragedies, you are going to love The Duchess of Malfi. Sounds awesome, doesn’t it? It gets awesomer. We have all kinds of special treats planned for our audiences. From a pre-show talk on July 16th to a post-show discussion with some of the creative team on July 19th, there are all kinds of ways for you to get closer to this play. Even better, you can come back to this blog and check out cool features where you can learn about the play, meet the cast and creative team, and get sneak peeks into rehearsal. Speaking of sneak peeks into rehearsal…
Alan Katz (left), Dramaturg and Incredibly Handsome Man, Paul Reisman (middle), Director and Even Handsomer Man, and Kiernan McGowan (right) , Producer and Handsomest Man of Them All (Photo courtesy of the wonderful Gwen Grastorf)I will be one of your hosts for these awesome goodies. That’s me on the left, during one of the first rehearsals for Duchess, doing some dramaturgical “table work” with the director and actors. Table work comes in the first few rehearsals of the production, where the cast and creative team literally sit around a table to read the script and the director explains his vision while initial questions about the script are answered. As the dramaturg, table work is important for my job, since my job is to bring a historical perspective to the production and to help make the play more accessible to you, our audience. Join me for some upcoming blog posts where you can learn about the true story of the Duchess of Malfi, a story rife with dangerous secrets, illicit affairs, intrigue, madness, and murder where Big Brother lurks around every corner in this disturbingly modern world.
Tickets are on sale now! We open on July 13th at Flashpoint DC and run through July 23rd! Buy your tickets now!
We Happy Few DC 