THE COUNTRY HUSBAND to Premiere at the UNFringed

John Cheever's The Country Husband, a short story so sublime that it supposedly caused Ernest Hemingway to wake his wife Mary in the middle of the night so that he could read it out loud to her, is making its stage debut in Eddie Aronoff's adaptation at the Secret Theatre's UNFringed Festival in Long Island City this August.

Cheever, often referred to as the "Chekhov of the Suburbs", has been adapted for the stage (A. R. Gurney's A Cheever Evening) and screen (Frank Perry's The Swimmer) before, but never has his writing been so well preserved as it is in this new production.

"I chose to adapt the piece as a type of narrative theater," explained Aronoff, "where the prose of the short story is woven into the dialogue and distributed among the actors in unexpected ways, helping to reveal character motivations, and turning description into dynamic action."

Aronoff admits that his approach to the Cheever story was heavily influenced by the work of Russian theater director, Kama Ginkas, whose three Chekov adaptations of Lady With a Lap Dog, Rothschild's Fiddle and The Black Monk all use this story-telling conceit.

"It's not a new idea at all, but when seeing Kama's work, it somehow felt fresh and revelatory, kind of an opening up of the stories, peeling away layers of them bit by bit. And though the similarities between Cheever and Chekhov may not actually hold up well to scrutiny, the writing in both cases is so elegant that it seems almost heretical to deviate too far from the words on the page."

The Country Husband will be performed at The Secret Theatre on Long Island City for three evenings, August 11th, 13th and 14th at 8:00, 10:00 and 9:00, respectively. It features Michael Moss in the role of Francis Weed, Hannah Wolfe as his wife Julia, Emily Batsford as his young love interest Ann Murchison, Taylor August as Clayton Thomas, and Shelley Molad in multiple roles. Nicholas Bonaparte will also be on hand to accompany the performance on both piano and ukulele.

Tickets are available at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2565279