August Strindberg's THE BLACK GLOVE Comes to the Gene Frankel Theatre

Even people familiar with August Strindberg may be surprised to learn that he wrote plays for children. The best example is "The Black Glove," his final Chamber Play.

Its place in history has been obscured by a historical fluke: it premiered in 1911, after the close of Strindberg's Intimate Theater, which it was written for. This kept it out of many anthologies.

In Strindberg's lyrical fantasy, a lost black glove found in the entryway to a large apartment building the day before Christmas Eve mystically passes through the hands of many of its residents as it bestows a Christmas spirit.

The glove belongs to a young wife who has been mistreating her servants and who is known as "too rich for her own good." She has wrongly accused her maid of stealing the ring, but in actuality it is lodged in the glove.

Trouble is, there are only two characters who know this: a Tomte (a mythological elf from Nordic folklore typically associated with the winter solstice and Christmas season) and the Christmas Angel.

The angel commands the Tomte to take away the young wife's baby daughter in order to teach the wife a lesson about "what it feels like to lose something," promising to restore the baby as a Christmas gift. In the course of the play, the wife learns humility and discovers her lost father.

The play is acted by a cast of six women, in the British Travesty tradition of the late 1800s (in which Sarah Bernhardt played Hamlet, etc.), in order to ensure that the play will be children-friendly.

Directed by Robert Greer
Verse translation by Anne-Charlotte Hanes Harvey

With:
Amber Jean Crawford* as The Wife
Crystal Edn* as Ellen
Amy Fulgham* as Kristin
Pilar Garcia* as The Tomte
Diane Perell* as The Caretaker
Mary Tierney* as The Christmas Fairy
Jo Vetter* as The Curator

Projection design by Donna Miskend
Costume design by Janet Mervin
Lighting design B. Gilbert Pearto
Sound design by Giovanni Villari
Stage Manager Charles Casano

DECEMBER 6 TO 16
Wed-Fri at 7:00 PM, Sat at 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM,
Sun at 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM

$29 general admission
Special seating (front rows):
$49 for parent & child
$59 for one parent and two children,
$69 for two parents and two children
Packages include goodie bags for the children.

Box Office (212) 868-4444
Running Time: 75 minutes