Treason

The Perry Street Theatre Company Inc. presents Treason, a new play by Sallie Bingham, directed by Martin Platt. The play tells the extraordinary story of the American poet, composer, translator, iconoclast, anti-Semite, racist, and, possibly, traitor Ezra Pound — and five of the most important women in his life.

Considered by many to be the most important poet of the 20th Century, Treason takes Pound from his broadcasts for Radio Rome railing against the U.S. involvement in World War II through 1945 when he was arrested and jailed on 19 charges of treason at Pisa. Declared “mentally unfit for trial” he was remanded to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington D.C. for 12 years. Pound was released only after a long campaign waged by admires such as Hemingway and Eliot. Treason examines the quintessential poet and firebrand, Ezra Pound, who betrayed his country, his art, his wife, his mistress and everyone he knew.