The Play’s the Thing

Set in an Italian castle beside the Mediterranean, The Play’s the Thing follows Sandor Turai, a successful playwright, and Mansky, his common-sense collaborator. They have just arrived at the castle in the middle of the night with their newest protégé Albert Adam, a young composer hopelessly in love with singer/actress diva Ilona. The three have made the mistake of planning to surprise Ilona, who’s also staying at the castle. As they settle into their suite, they suddenly overhear Ilona in the next room making love to Almady, a ham actor and former flame. The sensitive Adam goes to pieces declaiming he’ll never write another note of music. Mansky is ready to cancel the show then and there. Turai devises a plan to insure that his newest, most glorious production will not close at 3 A.M. out of town. To convince the distraught Adam that Ilona and Almady were not making love but simply rehearsing a play that they will perform for the other castle guests that evening, Turai writes a play incorporating the ghastly real-life dialogue they have overheard, blackmails Ilona and Almady into acting in it, and then makes sure that the distraught young composer discovers the “truth” himself.

Matinees only on October 15th and 22nd.