James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room

THE JAMES BALDWIN ESTATE HAS GRANTED QUINTESSENCE PERMISSION TO PRODUCE THIS WORLD PREMIERE THEATRICAL ADAPTATION OF “GIOVANNI’S ROOM” FOR PHILADELPHIA. The groundbreaking novel has been adapted for the stage by Benjamin Sprunger & Paul Oakley Stovall.  

In the groundbreaking 1956 novel, a beautiful young American travels to Paris with his girlfriend to deliberate their future marriage. In the city of light, David discovers a vibrant queer community and falls in love with Giovanni, an Italian bartender at a local gay bar. Unsettled by the discovery of an erotic nature in himself and the men around him, and scared by the newfound force of his desire and passion, David is unable to imagine a future public life with Giovanni, and disappears into his past self, setting off a series of fatal tragic accidents.