New York City
Filled with magic, mystery and live music, The Strange Tree Group brings Chicago’s ghosts to life this Halloween season with The Spirit Play. The world premiere production is written by Emily Schwartz and directed by Jimmy McDermott, who last collaborated on the smash hit show The Three Faces of Doctor Crippen, which won 2011 Joseph Jefferson Awards for Best New Work and Best Director.
Séances, spirit mediums and supernatural occurrences took Victorian-era America by storm, as otherwise sensible people grasped at any means to reach out to their loved-ones on the other side. In the insular, upper-class world of 1870s Chicago, three scheming charlatans prey on the rich with elaborate tricks and magic during well-rehearsed séances. But when young Jane, the so-called medium, begins to receive unexpected communications from the dead, her world takes a stunning turn.