by BWW News Desk | Jan. 9, 2019
Coming to the Everyman stage this February, emerging playwright Chelsea Marcantel‘s Everything is Wonderful takes us into the heart of Amish country. The play runs January 29 – February 24, 2019.
Imagine a knock at the door from the hand complicit in a family tragedy: When the repentant driver in a fatal collision seeks forgiveness from the Amish clan whose sons’ lives he claimed, faith guides them to welcome him into their community and their home. But as inconvenient truths from the family’s past are discovered, can their outpouring of empathy be as limitless as it seems?
At times both funny and heartbreaking, the struggle to keep a family together after a tragic loss leads to a new kind of resolution. Excommunicated Miri returns home after her brothers’ deadly accident only to find that while she is still shunned, the men responsible for their deaths and her banishment are embraced by her family. Quickly learning that time has not healed old wounds, Miri struggles with the contradictions of the culture she left behind. The past and present collide as the play unravels assumptions and discovers universal truth.
Marcantel conducted extensive research to ensure accuracy in presenting a little-known way of life in an honest and realistic way. The details extend into the costuming, as well as set design by Resident Designer Daniel Ettinger, (The Importance of Being Earnest, Sweat, The Book of Joseph) transforming Everyman’s intimate theatre into expansive horse country through a set extension, removing seating in order to widen the horizon of the setting.
This exciting new work is exactly the type of story that Everyman loves to tell, states Everyman Founding Artistic Director Vincent M. Lancisi. It’s a family drama like no other. Everything is Wonderful examines the intricacies of forgiveness through the lens of this enigmatic community wrestling to find a new path forward, and is a refreshing Take That audiences won’t want to miss.
Resident Company members Bruce Randolph Nelson (The Importance of Being Earnest) and Deborah Hazlett (Sweat) undergo dramatic transformations from previous roles this season to plumb the depths of an outlying culture in this enthralling, critically acclaimed drama about a peaceful community wrestling regret, redemption, and contradiction.
We as a country are gasping under the weight of divisiveness, anger, and exhaustion, says Director Noah Himmelstein (of last season’s record-breaking The Book of Joseph). Everything is Wonderful breaks through the noise and challenges us with what feels like a revolutionary question: what about forgiveness?’
Everything is Wonderful runs January 29 through February 24, 2019.
Tickets ($10 65) are on sale now, online (everymantheatre.org), by phone (410.752.2208), or at the Everyman Theatre Box Office (315 W. Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD).
The cast for Everything is Wonderful includes Resident Company members Deborah Hazlett* (Esther) and Bruce Randolph Nelson* (Jacob). Fellow cast members returning to the Everyman stage include Hannah Kelly as Ruth (The Book of Joseph) and Tony Nam* as Eric (Aubergine). Making their debuts to the Everyman stage are Steve Polites (Abram) and Alexandra Spieth* (Miri).
The production team for Everything is Wonderful includes set designer Daniel Ettinger (The Importance of Being Earnest, Sweat, The Book of Joseph), costume designer Ben Kress, lighting designer Cory Pattak (The Book of Joseph), sound design and composition by Pornchanok Kanchanabanca, dialect coach Steve Sattas, properties master Jillian Mathews, and stage management by Cat Wallis* .
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States Indicates an Everyman Resident Production Member
