der for people to retain their
own authority and power. This
is what Joe Orton was so good
at. I think it was definitely some-
thing Orton was very interested
in exploring and in this play he
does it through these ludicrous
characters in insane situations.
But he often asks the questions:
‘What is truth? Who are the
guardians of the truth? And what
do we do when our authority fig-
ures deny the truth?’”
While the Shakespeare Theatre
of New Jersey is primarily dedi-
cated to Shakespeare’s canon
and works by his fellow play-
wrights of the day, the company
generally includes a surprise or
two each season - sometimes
recent plays or rarely performed
works. This will be the first Joe
Orton play produced at The
Shakespeare Theatre of New
Jersey during the tenure of
Bonnie J. Monte as Artistic
Director.
NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 8
“One of the things I think is ex-
traordinary in the Shakespeare
Theatre of New Jersey’s choice
for this play is that Joe Orton
rarely gets produced in the Unit-
ed States,” said Vanessa. “He’s
a great playwright and despite
the play obviously written in the
English language there is no
mistaking that this is a foreign
play to American audiences.
Having the opportunity to watch
it in the United States is rare and
special. I think it is a real gift
that the company has offered us
both as actors and to the audi-
ence as well.”
“We recently did a production
of Arcadia, which experiences
a similar fate of not being pro-
duced very often for different
reasons,” added Peter. “These
are great plays and the fact that
we, as the theatre going public
in America, don’t get the oppor-
tunity to see them very often is
rather sad.”
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