One of Boston's favorite neighborhood night spots, Lucky's Lounge, will be home to William Saroyan's 1939 masterpiece,
The Time of Your Life, set in a San Francisco waterfront honky-tonk. The Fort Point Theatre Channel production of Saroyan's sprawling masterpiece honors the 100th birthday of America's greatest playwright of Armenian heritage.
The Time of Your Life earned Saroyan both the New York Drama Critics Circle and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. However, he refused the $1,000 Pulitzer, saying commerce should not judge the arts.
Despite the play's richly deserved reputation and many admirers, it is rarely staged due to its immense scale. Over 20 actors portray the broad swath of life that Saroyan celebrates. Their characters range from a pinball fanatic to a man who claims to be Kit Carson, from a pair of warm-hearted streetwalkers to a slumming society couple searching for something real, from a bartender who plays father to his patrons and the play's one villain: a vice cop who can't let people just live. The cast assembled by Fort Point Theatre Channel is anchored by Robert Murphy, one of Boston's leading actors. He is joined by professional actors and actresses from throughout Boston, as well as several artists from the Fort Point community.
Saroyan's play is rooted in the 1930s, but it as fitting today as when he was writing for a nation mired in the Great Depression and facing a global upheaval. Rejecting despair, Saroyan was known for his zest for life. He recognized the troubles in his world yet found inspiration in the diversity of the American people. Saroyan's warm-hearted play is one of hope for the future, even if that comes with an admonition: "In the time of your life, live--so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it." Fort Point Theatre Channel is a professional performance company, nurtured and inspired by the talent that lives and works in the Fort Point area of Boston, New England's largest community of artists.
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