Rough Crossing

“I must have been blind last night when you kissed me on the stern. Do
you think that might be misunderstood? I’ll make it poop, shall I? Last
night when you kissed me on the poop.”

Adapted from Ferenc Molnar’s Play at the Castle and P.G.
Wodehouse’s The Play’s the Thing, Tom Stoppard’s Rough Crossing is a rollicking farce set in the 1930s aboard an ocean liner on its way from Southampton to New York. On board is a musical comedy team who must come up with an ending for their newest show before the ship docks. The team, however, is saddled with an aging, randy starlet, a depressed Russian tragedian, a love struck piano player with an extremely odd elocution tic, and a cabin steward with an insatiable taste for cognac. Can this foundering cast survive a sea of mishaps, malaprops, pratfalls, and urbane repartee to deliver a winning script to Broadway? Kevin G. Coleman directs.

“Few modern playwrights serve a fizzier champagne of verbal wit than Tom
Stoppard — Stoppard’s puns and non-sequiturs ricochet around the stage
like pingpong balls at summer camp.”
— The New York Times

Prior to 8:00pm evening performances of Rough Crossing, enjoy the Shakespeare & Company Prelude, featuring a variety of performances to help prepare audiences for the evening’s show.

For dates and showtimes to all of Shakespeare & Company’s 30th Anniversary productions, please click here.